Tickets Scam Causing Rs. 6.2 Million Losses to PIA

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) security and vigilance team, busted a gang within the PIA, selling low price tickets through forgery to travelers, causing losses of Rs 6.2 million to the National Flag Carrier.

As per to the spokesman of PIA, a PIA vigilance team carried out a raid at the sales office of Pakistan International Airline in Sialkot and found that tickets on low prices were provided to the travelers for special flights.

Sharing the modus operandi, the spokesman said that the PIA raised fares of its tickets for special flights during COVID-19 pandemic and had cancelled all tickets booked before lockdown.

The employees of the national flag carrier, received bribes from the travelers to provide them tickets on old rates, set before the COVID-19 pandemic. The tickets were provided to the passengers traveling from Sialkot to Milan, Barcelona and other foreign destinations.

Notably, the services of PIA are under question ever since its plane crashed last month killing 97 people on board.

The PIA has now witnessed 10 major crashes, in addition to multiple other incidents of passengers’ lives being endangered. Last year alone saw a PIA ATR-42 skid off the runway during a landing attempt in Gilgit, and a Jeddah-bound flight made an emergency landing in Lahore. Cases of drug trafficking and smuggling involving PIA staff have regularly surfaced as well.

In addition to all of the PIA’s frequent follies being attributed to individuals, what unites these incidents is the lack of transparency surrounding them. This is further reflected in the wretched picture painted by the fiscal numbers.

The PIA’s total debt was reported to be 400 billion Pakistani rupees as of June 30, 2019. That number is approaching the 500 billion mark, with the airline currently reporting losses of 6.3 billion rupees per month. Despite managing to reduce operational losses in recent months, the PIA’s longstanding flaws have resurfaced amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit the global airline industry.

Aviation experts underline that the PIA’s entire functioning has been held hostage to vested groups, more interested in using the airline to serve personal, or institutional, ambitions. For many, the PIA is a microcosm of all that ails Pakistan.

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