A Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 777 has been repossessed while on the ground in Kuala Lumpur after arriving from Islamabad, waiting to return to Pakistan. This is the second time this same aircraft has been repossessed in Kuala Lumpur since 2021 for failure to make payments to the airline’s lessor. $4 million is currently at issue.
A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Boeing 777 has been impounded under a Malaysian court order at Kuala Lumpur Airport over payment dispute between the airline and the aircraft leasing company.https://t.co/fl02QrEQjE
File photo: pic.twitter.com/nsC5d5Az7k
— Pakistan Aviation News 🇵🇰 (@avpak3) May 30, 2023
The Boeing 777, registration AP-BMH, was previously leased to Vietnam Airlines. It was leased to PIA by AerCap in 2015. The aircraft was sold to National Commercial Bank subsidiary Peregrine Aviation Co Ltd. in 2018 but AerCap continues to manage the lease.
Aircraft AP-BMG, also previously leased to Vietnam Airlines and transferred to Pakistan International Airlines in 2015, has been covered by similar disputes as well though that plane seems to fly mostly back and forth to Saudi Arabia.
Boeing 777 on Approach to New York JFK in 2014, Copyright zhukovsky / 123RF Stock Photo
Pakistan International Airlines is the worst airline in the world. Best known for sacrificing a goat for safety and flying with more passengers than seats (and making customers stand for 1700 miles), the airline’s former CEO was actually detained as a result of his efforts to provide good seats and service by wet leasing aircraft from SriLankan.
At PIA even operating on time creates problems: customers build failure into their expectations and don’t actually show up for flights when they’re scheduled to depart. So being offloaded in order for an aircraft to be impounded is more or less par for the course.
The solution is simple.
More goats, please!
As per flight tracker this plane did apparantly make the return trip to Islamabad about 15 hours late!
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/PIA895/history/20230529/2125Z/WMKK/OPIS
If it’s a goat or me, the goat’s not gonna make it.
I only flew PK once, FRALHR many, many moons ago. I can still remember the experience.
Sounds like everything else in Pakistan. I love the country, one the the most beautiful and fascinating countries in that art of the world, but yes, it has many problems.
This actually misses the very worst thing about PIA, which is the massive scandal that many of it’s pilots were flying on false certifications, which was uncovered due to an accident when a pilot forgot to lower his landing gear. PIA lost its rights to fly over the EU/UK/Canada/USA as a result. I have heard that they’ve cleaned up and the EU is in the process of recertifying them for entry . . . but not sure if accurate.