Over 20 PIA Staff Implicated in Premium Seat Booking Fraud at Lahore Airport as Audit Uncovers Rs5.06 Million Irregularity

The PIA seat fraud at Lahore came to light the slow way — not through a complaint, but through an audit. More than 20 employees and officers of Pakistan International Airlines posted at Allama Iqbal International Airport have been implicated in a premium seat booking scam worth over Rs5 million, after the Lahore Finance and Audit Committee went through the station’s records for May 2024 and May 2025.

How the money was taken

According to The News, ground staff were collecting the extra charges for premium, extra-legroom and bulkhead seats directly from passengers — sometimes after boarding, sometimes after the flight had departed — on both domestic and international services. The money never reached the airline. Instead, staff altered the system records so the same seats showed up as standard seats, and kept the difference themselves. The passenger got the better seat, the paperwork looked clean, and PIA quietly lost the revenue.

Recovery through salaries, and hard questions

So far, Rs5,060,269 has been recovered through deductions from the accused employees’ salaries and deposited back into PIA’s account. The findings have raised fresh questions about internal oversight, accountability and revenue protection at the national carrier — not least how a practice spread across at least two audit cycles stayed invisible for so long.