Yet another controversy has surrounded the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), and this time it is the company’s monetary situation.
An aircraft of the PIA was seized at the Kuala Lumpur airport, while 170 passengers were on board.
Malaysian authorities seized a Boeing-777 of the PIA at the Kuala Lumpur airport following court orders against the company as the PIA had been proven guilty for non-payment of aircraft lease dues.
As per reports, the company owed money to the AerCap, a Dublin-based company.
The Pakistan company has now, after almost a week, paid nearly $7 million to the Peregrine Aviation Charlie Limited, local media reported.
“The claimant’s position is that the sums were paid today by the defendant (PIA),” AerCap’s lawyer told the court this week.
PIA’s payments were pending since July. As per the local reports, PIA owed $580,000 per month to the airliner which was due in the whole amount.
The leasing company had to, in the end, file a case against the Pakistan airlines in the London High Court. This case was filed in October 2020 and the official records read the charge to be non-payment of leasing fee, which was nearly $14 million and was due for nearly six months.
When the PIA had been informed about the non-payment, they had cited pandemic to be a reason, claiming the airlines had been badly hit following a worldwide lockdown.
However, the leasing company had been tracking the company’s movement and appealed to the London High Court to issue an order of seizing the aircraft as per the international civil aviation leasing laws.
When the aircraft landed in Malaysia, the authorities seized the aircraft with the passengers on board, creating chaos.
Source: Thanks WIONews.com