I would request the prime minister to intervene and ensure that this proposed aviation policy is not implemented
KARACHI: This is with reference to your report “Aviation policy awaiting cabinet’s nod”. A closer look at the aviation policy would reveal that its sole aim is for the aviation ministry to assert full control over PIA, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Airport Security Force. Such attempts have been made in the past as well and they have failed. Under the proposed policy, a new post of chief operating officer has been created and all agencies operating at airports will report to him. A lot of the changes that have been made so far have been cosmetic. For instance, the director administration was renamed chief human resource officer, the director finance was renamed chief financial officer, the director legal was renamed chief of legal services, while the post of director airport was renamed airport manager. The nature of the job of various agencies deployed at the airports is different and they cannot be made to report to a so-called chief operating officer since decisions have to be taken on the spot. A practical solution is to promote deserving people from within the CAA to the post of CEO and make them responsible for the day-to-day running of the airports.
Another provision of the proposed new aviation policy is that it seeks to end the practice by airlines to get new aircraft via a ‘wet lease’. The fact is that this runs contrary to the claim of encouraging investment in the aviation sector. The government should not concern itself with whether a new or an existing airline is seeking to expand its fleet through a wet lease, but should focus on the quality of the services that they provide and whether they meet the standards set down in the policy. Furthermore, imposing the restriction of a minimum of five planes on airlines, compared with the current of three, is tantamount to discouraging investors. The point to understand is that more airlines mean more revenue for the government and it should not be deciding what the airlines do or don’t do in terms of their operations.
Finally, readers should know that the CAA has substantial earnings annually, in the region of between Rs60-70 billion. Of this amount, around two-thirds is collected under the head of aeronautical charges, while the rest come through commercial activities. The CAA’s monthly salary expenditure is around Rs700 million, which means around Rs8.4 billion every year. That means a substantial sum of money left over as profit, and this needs to be invested so that it gives good returns to the organisation.
I would request the prime minister to intervene and ensure that this proposed aviation policy is not implemented. What is needed is to bring about improvement in the facilities and quality of services that the agencies which operate in the sector provide to customers, and this doesn’t necessarily need a new aviation policy. We have sufficient surplus manpower in the CAA that can be better utilised to ensure this objective. At the very least, the proposed aviation policy should be made public for comment and scrutiny by taxpayers since their funds will be used to implement it. Furthermore, control of the CAA, the ASF and PIA should be reverted to the ministry of defence like before.
Mukhtar Ahmed
Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
