The Privatisation Commission of Pakistan has announced that the auction for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will be held on October 1. This comes after a series of discussions regarding the airline’s privatisation process.
Six bidders have been pre-qualified for the auction, including Fly Jinnah, YB Holdings-led consortium, Air Blue Limited, Pak Ethanol-led consortium, Arif Habib Corporation, and Blue World City. The commission also plans to revise the bidding rules to facilitate the auction process.
Currently, PIA is grappling with a debt of approximately Rs800 billion ($2.9 billion) and has relied on numerous government bailout packages in recent years.
The privatisation, initially slated for August 14, was delayed as bidders requested updated financial details, including information on aircraft lease agreements and the airline’s suspended flights to Europe, which have been grounded since 2020 following a fatal plane crash in Karachi that raised safety concerns.
Officials are also considering the possibility of resuming PIA’s European flights as part of the privatisation efforts.