PIA plane ‘held back’ by Malaysian authorities over UK court case

A Pakistan International Airlines plane has been held back by Malaysian authorities over a British court case, the airline said on Friday, adding that it would pursue the matter through diplomatic channels.

The Boeing 777 aircraft was seized after a court order, an airline spokesman said, and alternative arrangements were being made for passengers due to fly back to Pakistan.

“A PIA aircraft has been held back by a local court in Malaysia taking a one-sided decision pertaining to a legal dispute between PIA and another party pending in a UK court,” a PIA spokesman said in a statement.

The national carrier in a statement described the situation as “unacceptable” and said it had asked for support from Pakistan’s government to raise the matter diplomatically.

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The company did not say where the plane was being held. The spokesman told Reuters that the matter related to an arbitration case over payments being heard in a UK court. Further details of the case were not immediately available.

Malaysian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With more than $4 billion in accumulated losses, PIA was already struggling financially when flights were grounded last year due to the pandemic.

As it resumed operations in May, a domestic PIA flight crash in Karachi killed 97 of 99 people on board.

Pakistan’s aviation industry was then hit by a scandal in which pilots were found to hold “dubious” licences - prompting a number of countries to ban PIA from operating flights in their jurisdictions.

The airline was banned from flying to the European Union for six months over safety compliance concerns under a ban still in place.

Reuters