PIA: Drowning in losses

February 12, 2020 (MLN): Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited (PIA), has posted a growth of around 17%YoY in its net losses to Rs 37.8 billion for the half-year ended June 30^th 2019.

In the corresponding period of last year, the PIA’s net losses stood at Rs 32.4 billion.

This translated into a loss per share which was increased by 16.9% YoY to Rs 7.24 per share for Class A, while for class B, the loss per share rose by 16.7% to Rs 3.62 per share.

The major reasons for the increase in PIA’s losses were the significant Exchange loss which grew by Rs 8.7 billion due to rupee depreciation, increase in fuel cost owing to increase in fuel prices and increase in financial charges by 79.6% YoY to Rs 15.8 billion.

As a result of PIA’s continuous effort to improve its revenue base by introducing a number of city-pair routes globally, the company’s net revenues during the first six months of 2019 jumped significantly by 44.6% YoY to Rs 65.9 billion from Rs 45.6 billion reported last year.

Besides, the state-owned airline’s other income surged considerably by 325% to Rs 1.134 billion, the impact was partially offset by a counter increase in PIA’s other provisions and adjustment to Rs 1 billion.

Moreover, it is worthwhile to note that regardless of the fact that state-owned airline is going through a terrible financial state, the Aviation Division is quite optimistic that PIA will soon become self-reliant.    

Recently, Minister Incharge for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan informed the Senate that losses of PIA have decreased to Rs 11 billion from Rs 32 billion during 2019 as compared to the year 2018 owing to good governance and better management.

Copyright Mettis Link News