PIA returns to profitability after 21 years

[Averagespotter]

As per Bloomberg and the Kaleej Times, PIA has returned to profitability after 21 years. This is compared to a loss of PKR 104.5 billion in 2023.

Financial costs have been reduced from PKR 79.42 billion to PKR 10.06 billion.

Source: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/p ... r-21-years

Personal opinion: PIA should achieve higher profit margins in 2025 given the resumption of flights to Paris and the economy projected to grow at 3-3.5% in the current fiscal year. PIA needs to only focus on high demand routes that are tried and tested as there is very little room for experimentation. In terms of cabin quality, everyone already knows what to expect from PIA so I wouldn't even bother with that for the current year.

[Eyesonpia]

Is this true?

[HassanKhan]

Is this true?

Yes, a significant factor is that mist of their debt got moved to public debt. Profitability on the cost of the tax payer

[Abbas Ali]

PIACL Board has approved its accounts FY 2024, and after 21 years, the airline has achieved an operating profit of PKR 9.3 billion & net profit of PKR 26.2 billion (after deferred tax adjustment).

https://x.com/KhawajaMAsif/status/1909656338248147014

[Usman123]

PIA has stopped posting it's financial reports on its website since the privatization process started!

Its great news, one after another
Hiring has started, returning to profitability, EU routes open again hopefully UK too this year.

One major factor that for this profitability can be that all PIA wide-bodies are now Owned ! And majority of yhe A320 fleet except i think the 6 A320 leased after Covid.

[Averagespotter]

Could it at all be possible that the reason PIA returned to profitability is because they transferred all the liabilities to the holding company? The most recent available income statement for PIA (9 month statement from September 2023) already indicated that PIA was making a profit before taxes. The only reason they weren't making a profit after taxes was because of the debt repayments.

[HassanKhan]

This and significant cost cutting has lead to 'profit' a win for PIA and its stakeholders nonetheless

[AviationLover2020]

Even if the return to profit is due to offloading of liabilities, it’s good news. It shows, at the very least, that the airline isn’t contuining to bleed money because of poor financial practices.

[Usman123]

Good time to start planning for future, fleet renewal, cabin refurbishment & bringing back grounded planes.

I wonder was it with the help of PIA business plan formulated in 2021/22.

[b78709]

Good time to start planning for future, fleet renewal, cabin refurbishment & bringing back grounded planes.

I wonder was it with the help of PIA business plan formulated in 2021/22.

It is due to the fact that all PIA debt is now parked in the PIA holding company that owns the Scribe Hotel in Paris and Roosevelt Hotel in New York. Govt took couple of decades to decide it. Every Tom, Dick and Harry advised this scheme for over two decades now. It took Earnest & Young to copy paste this public demand on its report. Govt listened to public demand after paying two million Dollars to Earnest & Young.

[Amaad Lone]

There are no free meals.

Yes PIA might not owe 650 billion taken over by the Holding Company, but at the same time PIA did lose a lot of Assets such as the Roosevelt Hotel in New York and the Scribe Hotel in Paris plus number of other properties now owned by the PIA holding company.

Plus the 278 billion in bank loans, the government is paying 12% on it.

[PIAYYZ]

How does anybody take this news seriously?

“In a copy of the financial books, attained by Khaleej Times, it seems that the national flag carrier of Pakistan is about to announce a solid net profit for 2024 compared to Rs104.5 billion loss in the corresponding period as it successfully implemented operational and balance sheet restructuring, followed by maintaining high level financial discipline.”

Why wasn’t this copy published for the public to see?

This reminds me of the previous Fauji-Patwari alliance government, where they made bogus statements about Pakistan Railway financial restructuring and how it was on the verge of profitability.

Since 2018, Pakistan Railways has STOPPED publishing its annual yearbook which provides us with operation costs and net profit numbers.

Just another normal day in Pakistan. Thugs and crooks sitting at the top making a fool of the entire country, while the people sit and wait for someone to come save them.

[HassanKhan]

How does anybody take this news seriously?

“In a copy of the financial books, attained by Khaleej Times, it seems that the national flag carrier of Pakistan is about to announce a solid net profit for 2024 compared to Rs104.5 billion loss in the corresponding period as it successfully implemented operational and balance sheet restructuring, followed by maintaining high level financial discipline.”

Why wasn’t this copy published for the public to see?

This reminds me of the previous Fauji-Patwari alliance government, where they made bogus statements about Pakistan Railway financial restructuring and how it was on the verge of profitability.

Since 2018, Pakistan Railways has STOPPED publishing its annual yearbook which provides us with operation costs and net profit numbers.

Just another normal day in Pakistan. Thugs and crooks sitting at the top making a fool of the entire country, while the people sit and wait for someone to come save them.

I understand your skepticism but for this scenario PIA did make moves to become more profitable mostly debt reallocation (to gov debt which is a questionable move) which was a major component of its financial failures. Besides this time around the IMF has the government on gunpoint so there are reasons to believe this news is true.

[Karachi Aviator]

This reminds me of the previous Fauji-Patwari alliance government

This is an aviation related forum, please keep such political statements to yourself.

Besides what prove do you have which says that PIA didn't made these profits? PIA was always in operational profits, it was the debt servicing which PIA had to pay for as an expense ( Interest payments + debt repayments) which made PIA to not achieve net profits