Soomro's 'royal pilgrimage' cost PIA $2.8m

PIA is unable to provide capacity to operate the 14 weekly scheduled flights to Saudi Arabia over the ages as per bilateral agreement. Following grounding of Boeing 747's, on which PIA had invested $85 Million on procurement of 17 new engines in 2007, with $20 Million worth of spare parts in store, has to settle for A310 on Saudi Arabia routes.

The long range Boeing 777 has been taken off to other sectors.

The fourth flight to New York which was due to start in May with induction of a brand new Boeing 777 in March 2008, has already been scrapped due to shortage of aircrafts. With grounding of Boeing 737 the airline is in crisis and one hopes  that the VVIP flights will not be planned frequently as done by the interim govt.

When contacted PIA authorities said that in the past airbus aircraft was used for the VVIP movement but now the rulers use aircraft they want.

They said that in the past Qatar Airways had donated an Airbus to PIA for the same purpose but that was also not in use.