The scheduled flights of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) to Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Tokyo are likely to be disturbed as Myanmar Aviation Authority (MAA) has threatened to disallow national flag carrier for using its airspace over non-payment of its dues - euros 52,000; it was learnt here on Thursday.
According to sources, Ministry of Transport Department of Civil Aviation Yangon, Myanmar, in a notice asked PIA to settle its all "pending dues" and if the airline was unable to pay, they would suspend all PIA's operations through its airspace, which may disturb all its scheduled flights to Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Moreover, sources said that MAA's payments amounting to euros 52,000 were pending since 2012 when PIA made over-flying in Myanmar's airspace in the months of April, May, June and July.
When contacted, PIA's spokesman Hanif Rana confirmed to have received a notice from MAA over the non-payment of Euro 52000, saying that MAA's payments were due for Hajj season 2012 when PIA carried out charter operations to lift passengers from Afghanistan and Burma.
He dispelled the impression of using Myanmar airspace for PIA's scheduled flights, saying that their airspace was only used during Hajj season for PIA's charter-flight operations.
He rationalised that earlier PIA had a designated post for charter flights but the same was removed few years ago hence these payments were pending since 2012. Rana further said that MAA's payments would not create financial constraints for PIA and hoped that the issue would be settled by next week.
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