Saudi Arabia suspends fuel supply to PIA

The fuel supply has been suspended to the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) planes at two major airports in Saudi Arabia, citing sources, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The fuel supply to the PIA planes has been suspended at two major airports in Saudi Arabia, Makkah and Madinah, due to non-payment of dues, sources told ARY News.

Sources added that the PIA flights were delayed for three to four hours due to the halt in fuel supply at Makkah and Madinah airports.

The PIA spokesperson confirmed the development. In a statement, the PIA spokesperson clarified that swift payments were made to the concerned oil companies.

Related: PIA loss swells to Rs10 bln due to fuel crisis

It added that the fuel supply was temporarily suspended due to a delay in the transfer of funds to the oil firms’ accounts. The spokesperson said that the fuel supply would be resumed soon after the completion of the transactions.

The national flag carrier had already suffered a huge financial loss due to a days-long halt in fuel supply locally in October after the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) rejected to continue supplies due to non-payment of dues.

In October, Pakistan International Airlines had suffered a ‘loss’ of Rs10 billion due to the current fuel crisis that led to the suspension of over 800 flights.

Related: PIA, PSO reach consensus, fuel supply to normalise soon

According to the Secretary General of Pakistan International Airlines Senior Staff Association, Safdar Anjum the current management of the national flag carrier was responsible for the huge loss to the already loss-making government entity.

He demanded to sack the current chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO), and director of engineering PIA over the fuel crisis that caused a loss of Rs10 billion.

Following an agreement between Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the flight operation returned to normalcy in November.