PIA secures Leipzig/Halle 5th Freedom rights

New Delhi mulls steps to avoid Air India aircraft seizure

In order to avoid Air India (AI, Mumbai Int'l) having its assets seized in a long-running corporate tax case between the Indian government and Cairn Energy over a USD1.2 billion award, Delhi is considering giving away some of its oilfields, sources told the Business Standard newspaper on January 31.

Last week, the Edinburgh-based energy firm threatened to seize Indian state assets following the award for damages in a December 2020 ruling at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, with possible targets including those owned by public-sector enterprises such as Air India.

Sources told the BBC that Cairn had started identifying assets it could seize if India did not comply and that these could include ships as well as aircraft.

Cairn Energy filed the case after income tax officials seized its 10% stake in Cairn India in 2014 following a corporate reorganisation. The tribunal in The Hague ruled unanimously that Delhi had violated the UK-India bilateral investment treaty, ordering the government to immediately pay the award plus interest and costs.

The government has...

PIA pays $7mn in lease dispute but $2mn still in balance

PIA - Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int'l) has paid USD7 million to Irish lessor Peregrine Aviation as part of a dispute involving two B777-200(ER)s, one of which was impounded in Malaysia earlier this month. But talks continue over a further USD2 million, lawyers representing the airline told a judge at the High Court of Justice in London.

The hearing at the court was adjourned on January 22, as the two parties agreed to settle the issue out of court, the newspaper Dawn reported.

PIA’s lawyers objected to the seizure of the aircraft at Kuala Lumpur Int'l airport, but the court said it could not order its release as it was the result of a ruling in another jurisdiction.

According to ch-aviation analysis of Flightradar24 ADS-B data, B777-200(ER) AP-BMH (msn 32717) remains in the Malaysian capital where it landed on January 15. The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that the Pakistani carrier’s fleet includes six B777-200(ER)s, two of which are leased. The other leased -200(ER), AP-BMG (msn 32716), has been...

Lessor seizes PIA B777 in Malaysia over $14mn dispute

PIA - Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int'l) will attempt to settle via diplomatic channels a dispute involving two of its B777-200(ER)s, one of which was “impounded on a court order” in Malaysia on January 15 due to a British court case over its lease, the airline said.

The case involves a USD14 million lease dispute, the airline admitted in a statement, adding that alternative arrangements had been made for passengers who had been due to fly on the seized aircraft from Kuala Lumpur Int'l back to Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int'l.

“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,” PIA spokesman Abdullah H Khan said.

Khan elaborated in a later statement: “We were told that the plane has been impounded on a court order. PIA’s legal team will pursue it in the Malaysian court, and we hope we will resolve this issue as soon as possible.”

Pakistan's PIA faces asset grab in British Virgin Islands

PIA - Pakistan International Airlines (PK, Islamabad Quaid-e-Azam Int'l) could see its assets attached by the High Court of Justice in the British Virgin Islands, where it is incorporated, over a longstanding dispute between its shareholder, the Pakistan state, and gold and copper exploration giant Tethyan Copper Company (TCC).

TCC has asked the High Court to enforce a USD5.97 billion award against Pakistan by the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral tribunal granted on July 12, 2019. The settlement award related to the Pakistan Province of Balochistan in 2011 having refused TCC a mining lease for the development of a USD3.3 billion copper-gold mine at Reko Diq in Balochistan. This resulted in TCC filing a case against Pakistan with the ICSID in 2012.

The enforcement of the award was provisionally stayed in September 2019, which was again extended on September 17, 2020, after the Pakistan government had applied for its annulment.

In a statement in December 2020, the office of the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) confirmed that...