For years, Pakistan’s government has been trying to privatize its struggling national airline, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The latest such bid was launched in April 2025, which came shortly after the company reported its first “profit” in decades, and also managed to shed most of its legacy debt issues.
Still, it seemed like a long shot than any private company would actually want to invest in PIA. So there’s now an update, as a Pakistani consortium has acquired a majority stake in the company, as reported by Arab News. Let’s start with a little background, and then we’ll talk about the latest update…
The issue is that over the past couple of decades, PIA has been an absolute mess of an airline, racking up an unbelievable amount of losses. From 2020 to early 2025, the airline was even banned from the European Union, after it was discovered that many PIA pilots held fake credentials. Even beyond that, the airline has lacked financial discipline, with bloated employee numbers, an outdated and inefficient fleet, and an uncompetitive onboard product.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
