SriLankan A330 aircraft deal boomeranged on PIA CEO
The A330 aircraft deal, between Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and SriLankan Airlines hailed by the CEO of the national carrier as very successful, has boomeranged against his PIA counterpart now faced with allegations of corruption relating to the deal.
On Thursday, the Pakistan government barred the CEO of PIA, Bernd Hildenbrand, a German national, from leaving the country due to an ongoing probe into theA330 aircraft wet lease from SriLankan Airlines in August last year, an official monitoring the deal told the Business Times.
Pakistan media reports also confirmed the latest situation stating that the PIA CEO’s name has put in the Exit Control List (ECL) by the Deputy Director Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Admin Lahore, Khawaja Hammadur Rehman on Wednesday.
The Federal Investigation Agency of Pakistan (FIA) is probing PIA’s leasing of an A-330 aircraft at an exorbitant rate from SriLankan Airlines. Leasing the aircraft and starting of a premier service to European destinations is said to be basically Mr. Hildenbrand idea, reports said. The lease of the A-330 aircraft from SriLankan Airline has caused huge losses to the PIA. Only in first three months of the premier service, the airline suffered a massive loss, according to information provided by PIA management to National Assembly standing committee on aviation. SriLankan Airlines has yet to collect around US$2 million plus interest from PIA for the arrears of the lease installments and the payment for extra flying hours of the aircraft, a local official said.
The payment of dues will be further delayed owing to the ongoing investigations, he added.
But SriLankan Airlines CEO Capt. Suren Ratwatte recently claimed that the leasing of one of its aircraft to PIA has been the ‘most profitable’ commercial agreement undertaken by the airline in the recent past. Be that as it may, now that the aircraft from PIA is back….the national carrier’s aircraft rotation must be so much easier as it has excess aircraft on ground since the European routes were suspended, the official added. Explaining the aircraft utilisation, Mr.Ratwatte told Business Times “currently we are flying all our aircraft and once received A330 will be added.”
SriLankan has charged PIA a rate of US$ 8100 per hour under the lease agreement which is a “hefty amount,” a Pakistani official said adding that it will have to come down drastically as the normal rate is about $6000 per hour.
Meanwhile the PIA board of Directors has decided to abrogate the latest Turkish Airline A-330 aircraft deal pending the FIA investigations.