LAHORE: The deadline for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has been postponed till October 2015 due to political unrest in the country, it has been learnt
The offloading of a 24% stake in the carrier, part of the conditions Pakistan accepted in return for an International Monetary Fund (IMF)-provided USD6.67 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreed to last year, was slated to be done by December of this year only to be postponed to June of next year. It has since emerged that that deadline has now been delayed until October 2015.
In September, Minister of State for Privatization, Mohammad Zubair, announced that PIA’s core business will be sold off with government to retain control of ancillary operations such as ground handling and hotels, under a holding company. The state will then sell off each of its interests individually over time. Though never officially confirmed, Emirates (EK, Dubai Int’l), Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi Int’l), and Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad Int’l) were believed to have been among the contenders for the carrier’s core business.
