Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the nation’s flagship carrier and once a reason for pride is up for sale.

 According to a government official, PIA will  split in two companies in the upcoming 18 months, with plans of handing over its core control to a global airline. The political pressure expected against the sell-off is huge.


PIA currently holds 17,000 employees with a fleet of 36 aircrafts out of which 10 are non-operational due to the lack of spare parts availability. 

The financial advisers are already on the lookout for potential buyers for PIA, speaking on the issue the Minister of State for Privatization, Mohammad Zubair said, 

It’s going to be the most difficult sale,” he also hinted the names of potential buyers including Emirates airline, Etihad and Qatar Airways. He also added, 

If we are saying that for 25 years PIA has been going from bad to worse, we can’t claim that we are business-savvy and we can turn it around.” Furthermore he added, “Anyone who thinks that the government can fund it is living in a fool’s paradise.

PIA’s downfall has been majorly contributed to by the over-staffing and hiring of miscellaneous political supporters over the time, which has gradually resulted in the financial deterioration of the company.

In order to avoid a mass layoff and much political pressure the state has planned to retain some parts of the organization like ground-handling, catering, hotels and even a poultry business, i.e. under the title of a holding company, which will later sell each business unit off independently.

Zubair also said that the selling PIA is a highly politically sensitive topic, while in his own words,

“PIA is not going to be sold just like that.”