Pakistan’s PIA tenders for widebody charters to the EU

PIA – Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int’l) has launched a pre-qualification procedure for the chartering in of widebody aircraft for flights to and from the European Union. PIA was banned by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in late June 2020 after around 150 pilots at the airline were suspended for allegedly using fake licences. The ban was imposed for at least six months. In its prequalification request, PIA is looking for aircraft that seat over 250 passengers in a two-class configuration, are built no earlier than 2008 (i.e. 12 years of age as per local law), and available immediately until March 2021. PIA said it would charter the aircraft whenever the need arises. However, it is not currently looking to engage in a long-term wet-lease but rather only to build a list of available aircraft from which it could draw on on an ad-hoc basis. Prospective operators have until September 25, 2020, to submit offers. Since the start of the EASA ban, PIA has chartered in A330-200 capacity from Wamos Air (EB, Madrid Barajas) and A330-300 capacity from Hi Fly Malta (HFM, Malta Int’l). Both ACMI specialists operated flights on behalf of PIA under their own codes.