Both Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Railways (PR) are on the verge of collapse, with the national flag carrier having to cancel over a dozen flights because of shortage of aircraft and Railways having to halt all trains from the Lahore region because of unavailability of diesel, Pakistan Today learnt on Thursday.
Sources said the PIA was facing serious aircraft shortage because of lack of spare parts, but nobody in the airline was willing to address the issue. A Boeing 747-300 had been grounded since August after its engines were sent for overhaul, but even after making payments the airline did not get back the overhauled engines, they said.
In a recent meeting, said the sources, PIA Director Captain Muhammad Junaid Younus was told that the airline would bring back all its flight on schedule from the second week of January after overhauling the grounded aircrafts. But instead of formulating a concrete plan to avert the situation, it was decided in the meeting that the airline would not cancel any Europe-bound flights in order to avoid heavy penalties. The meeting resolved that the airline would reroute or reschedule only domestic or Asia- and Middle East-bound flights and would try to bring back grounded aircraft after completing necessary overhauling by January, they said.
PIA sources revealed that out of a total of 39 aircrafts, nearly 16 – four Boeing 747s, two Boeing 777s and Boeing 737s each, six Airbus A310s and four ATRs – had been grounded for technical reasons. The mismanagement on the part of the airline had resulted in cancellations of some 12 domestic and international flights, including PK 257/8 (Karachi-Bahrain-Doha-Karachi), PK 241 (Karachi-Dammam-Islamabad), PK 896 (Karachi-Kuala Lumpur), PK 233/4 (Karachi-Muscat-Karachi), PK 221 (Faisalabad-Multan-Dubai), PK 222 (Dubai-Multan-Faisalabad), PK 304 (Karachi-Lahore), PK 307 (Lahore-Karachi) and PK 342 (Karachi-Faisalabad) on Thursday alone.
Similarly, a number of flights, including PK 732 (Jeddah-Karachi), PK 220 (Abu Dhabi-Islamabad), PK 288 (Doha-Peshawar), PK 723 (Lahore-Manchester-New York), PK 385 (Islamabad-Lahore), PK 356 (Lahore-Islamabad), PK 726 (Riyadh-Lahore) and PK 451/2 (Islamabad-Skardu-Islamabad), were delayed by one to 10 hours.
On the other hand, PR is also taking its last breaths because of unavailability of fuel. Sources told Pakistan Today that the Railways had to stop all trains from Lahore Railway Station because diesel was not available, which caused great hassle to passengers. They indicated that a number of trains coming from Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta would also halt operations at the railway station, because PR did not have any diesel stocks available in Lahore.
A Railways official who wished to remain unnamed told Pakistan Today that it would be impossible for PR to restore operations until the availability of fuel. PR was trying to transport some 45,000 litres of diesel from Multan, which was being expected to reach Lahore on Thursday evening. However, he said the Railways might need a few days to restore its operations completely as most tracks had been blocked by halted trains, causing long delays.