In a disagreement over unpaid lease payments with the owners of the aircraft, Malaysian authorities are said to have confiscated a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Boeing 777-200 passenger jet at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
After a six-hour trip from Islamabad, the 777, registered as AP-BMH, touched down in Kuala Lumpur at midday on Sunday. It has not yet flown back to Pakistan.
According to local media, the plane was seized on the instruction of a leasing business that had managed to secure a court order in Malaysia on the grounds that PIA had allegedly failed to pay $4 million in duties.
In a dispute over unpaid aircraft lease obligations, Malaysian authorities have twice taken the exact same aircraft from PIA. At Kuala Lumpur International Airport, passengers had already boarded the jet when it was originally detained in January 2021.
AerCap was pursuing legal action against PIA at the time in London’s High Court, but PIA was able to get diplomatic assurances on the unpaid lease payments in order to secure the plane’s release.
