The coronavirus outbreak has put Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) into financial trouble, causing a loss in revenue by Rs11 billion per month from April 2020 to June 2020.
According to official documents, the national airline suffered a revenue loss of Rs33bn from April to June. These losses can be attributed to the lack of Hajj and Umrah operations and the recent PIA plane crash in Karachi.
The management said that the national carrier was improving before the coronavirus.
In 2019, after 8 years, its loss was decreasing because gross loss turned into gross profit. It made a gross profit of Rs7.8bn in 2019, whereas in 2018 it made a gross loss of Rs19.7bn. Revenue in 2019 was more than Rs147bn compared to Rs103bn in 2018.
In the last 20 years, the PIA has seen its net worth decline a 100 times. This is because the national carrier has been reporting losses since 2005.
Last year, it burned Rs100,000 per minute of taxpayer’s money, taking the total accumulated losses to half a trillion rupees.
Experts say it is bankrupt which means that it can’t fund its operations nor pay its liabilities. Over the years, the airline’s worsening financial health coincided with a loss of reputation and deteriorating safety standards.
