LAHORE: International and domestic flight operations of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) may be affected adversely because it has yet to ensure replacement of four aircraft whose wet lease ends on May 31.

The organisation had acquired four aircraft on wet lease in December — two each from the airlines of Turkey and the Czech Republic. The aircraft are operating either on domestic routes or on flights to and from the Gulf, India and Bangladesh.

The domestic routes have up to 15 flights a day, which comes to about 25 per cent of the total number of flights.

As the PIA’s deal with a Qatar leasing company to acquire eight new aircraft on dry lease is in the doldrums, the national carrier is banking on an Irish firm to acquire two 189-seater aircraft next month to offset the impact of the four planes returning to their countries.

“The PIA is going to face a tough time as it will be very difficult for it to manage its international and domestic schedules in the absence of the four aircraft which were not only earning profits but helping reduce complaints of delays,” a source said.

He said the PIA would be in deep trouble if it didn’t manage to acquire additional aircraft before the Haj season.

“The organisation needs to ensure availability of three to five aircraft immediately to deal with the future crisis,” he remarked.

At present, it has 34 aircraft, of which nine have been grounded.

PIA spokesman Mashhood Tajwar said there had been delay in acquiring aircraft from the Qatar company because of lengthy procedures. “However, the special assistant to the prime minister on aviation, Shujaat Azeem, is making efforts to acquire two aircraft from an Irish company besides operating the two grounded A310 after repairs next month,” he said.

Earlier, the airline had said it would manage to get ten aircraft by September this year. When asked about it, Mr Tajwar said: “We cannot give any timeframe now but we will try to get eight planes as early as possible.”

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2014