LAHORE The Pakistan International Airlines is in a constant affair of delaying and cancelling flights for domestic and international destinations due to shortages of planes. A private television channel quoting the sources in the PIA reported on Sunday that only 31 out of 39 planes were available with the airline. Two Boeings 747, one Boeing 777, two Boeings 737, two Airbus A310 and one ATR plane have been grounded due to maintenance and repair reasons. Karachi-Faisalabad flight PK-340 and Karachi-Dubai flight PK-8/207 were cancelled, while, Karachi-Multan flight PK-332 left after a two-hour delay at 1:00pm, Islamabad-Abu Dhabi flight PK-219 left after a four-hour delay at 03:30am, added the TV report. PIA Public Affairs General Manager Syed Sultan Hassan while talking to TheNation said that it was the fact that the Airline has been facing shortages of planes. Yes, PIA needs more planes to meet the challenges, he added. Mr Sultan held that 33 aircraft were operational, three aircraft are under scheduled maintenance while three in unscheduled maintenance. He was of the view that reports regarding delay in flights were not reported correctly as the flights were not being delayed instead they were rescheduled keeping in view the number of passengers and other affairs. If there were 40 passengers for a flight and next flights have the capacity to adjust those 40 passengers then the management rescheduled the flight, he explained. He told this scribe that seven plans out of 33 have been dedicated for Haj operation. To a question, he said that flight safety was a concern of every airline in the world and PIA operations strictly following international safety standard. He informed that the last year number of passengers flown was 4.2 million and in 2011, it was 4.5 million. It is worth mentioning here that over the last couple of weeks, several aircraft made emergency landings after developing technical faults mid-air, 10 planes out of a fleet of 39 were grounded due to technical faults and for repairs and a large number of flights cancelled and rescheduled for announced and unannounced reasons.