ISLAMABAD: The new majority owner of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) warned on Saturday that flight operations may no longer be “viable” following a 150 percent surge in jet fuel prices, a development that threatens to derail the country’s most high-profile privatization in decades.
Arif Habib, chairman of the eponymous Arif Habib Group, which led the consortium acquiring a 75 percent stake in the airline last year in December, said the price hike has placed PIA at a major disadvantage against international rivals.
The warning comes as the group prepares to take full operational control of the airline next month.
“It won’t be viable to run the airline with current jet fuel prices,” Habib told Arab News, noting that the domestic price increase has been disproportionately sharp compared to global trends.
The crisis in Pakistan’s aviation sector follows a dramatic escalation in global energy markets. Oil prices spiked after the Feb. 28 joint US and Israeli air strikes in Iran, and subsequent Iranian attacks in Israel and other regional countries, which severely disrupted global supply chains.
