State-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) expects to return to full operations by the second half (Jul-Dec) of 2021. Most of PIA’s aircraft were grounded in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak in the country in February 2020.
PIA has been negotiating with financial institutions for rescheduling its loans and has already returned some leased aircraft and slashed its workforce by 1,900-2,000 employees (or 14%) by offering them voluntary separation scheme (VSS).
“Passenger numbers are expected to grow to 2.8 billion in 2021,” said PIA Chief Executive Officer Air Marshal Arshad Malik in the Annual Report 2020. He expects the number of passengers in 2021 to reach one billion more than in 2020, but still 1.7 billion travellers short of the 2019 figure.
“By the end of 2021, stronger revenues will improve the situation, but the first half of 2021 looks extremely challenging,” he said. “Airline’s financial performance is expected to see a significant turn for the better in 2021, even if historically deep losses prevail.”
“Passenger yields are expected to be flat and the load factor is expected to improve to 72.2% (an improvement over 65.5% in 2020, but still below the 82.5% achieved in 2019),” the report read.
PIA charter revenue has increased significantly during the pandemic due to special charter flights operated by the company, according to the annual report.
PIA booked a net loss of Rs34.64 billion in the year ended December 2020 compared to a loss of Rs52.6 billion in 2019, according to the report.
The airline has a negative equity of Rs460 billion comprising bank loans of Rs326 billion and other payables of Rs118 billion in its balance sheet, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet was informed some time ago.