PIA suffers over Rs4bn loss amid coronavirus outbreak

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) suffered over Rs4 billion loss owing to suspension of its flight operations to different counters amid coronavirus outbreak, ARY News reported.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) suffered Rs2.5 billion loss during the last 10 days, sources said.

The sources maintained that empty aircraft were being sent to Saudi Arabia to bring back the Pakistani pilgrims. The national flag carrier suspended flights on several routes, including China, Kuwait, Qatar, Italy, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

It is pertinent to mention here that the aviation industry was badly affected by the coronavirus outbreak across the world. Experts warned that most of the airlines will face bankruptcy by end of May owing to the deadly virus.

Earlier on February 22, as part of precautionary measures to block possible outbreak of a novel coronavirus that had so far killed over 2,200 people and infected more than 75,500 others in mainland China, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had suspended its Beijing flights.

The national flag carrier’s flights, PK-852 (Islamabad to Beijing to Tokyo) and PK-853 ( Beijing to Islamabad) will remain suspended until March 15, according to a spokesperson for the airline. The decision to suspend the flights were part of measures to prevent a possible spread of the epidemic in the country.