PIA’s inactive London station with 35 staff costs exchequer Rs210m: AGP

ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan has revealed that the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) retained 35 employees at its inactive London station, despite no flights or operations taking place from there for the past five years.

According to the AGP report, this caused a heavy loss of Rs210 million to the national exchequer.

According to the audit report, due to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) ban, PIA’s flights to the United Kingdom and Europe have been suspended.

“Maintaining 35 employees at the inactive station has cost the airline Rs210 million,” the audit report said.

“Under the Public Sector Companies Rules 2013, the board was responsible for making decisions in the company’s interest. The PIA management was notified about the issue in September 2024, but no response has been received so far,” the audit report said

Despite multiple reminders, the Departmental Accounts Committee meeting was not convened in January 2025, it said.

The audit report has recommended that the PIA administration immediately investigate the matter.

Earlier, the AGP report said that the PIACL suffered revenue losses of more than Rs9 billion between 2008 and 2017 due to the unchecked distribution of free and heavily discounted tickets during the tenures of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) governments.

According to a report, 258,990 passengers travelled on “zero fare” tickets between 2011 and 2016, resulting in losses of Rs5.55 billion to the national flag carrier.

Meanwhile, PIA’s plan to launch direct flights from Pakistan to the UK has hit a snag after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) failed to secure timely approval of the Third Country Operator (TCO) permit from British authorities.

In July, the United Kingdom lifted its ban on Pakistani airlines, allowing them to resume flight operations after over five years.

According to PIA officials, flights cannot operate until the TCO approval was granted. It has been over a month since the UK lifted restrictions on Pakistani airlines, but the CAA has yet to obtain the required clearance, which remains a major obstacle to launching direct flights.

UK High Commissioner Jane Marriott, who travelled on a PIA domestic flight from Islamabad to Karachi after the ban was lifted, had expressed her wish to fly to Manchester on PIA’s first direct UK flight. However, that plan has yet to materialise.