US bans PIA operations over licence issue

US authorities notified the ban on PIA through an email

RAWALPINDI:

Problems for the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) continued to exacerbate on Thursday as the United States also imposed a ban on flights of the national flag carrier for six months citing dubious pilots’ licences.

The move followed the grounding of 262 pilots whose licences Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan termed “dubious”.

Earlier, the European Union Air Safety Agency (EASA) had suspended the authorisation for PIA to operate in the bloc for six months on similar grounds.

Sources said the US authorities had notified to PIA of the ban through an email. They added that the special flights licences obtained by the airline had also been revoked. The US officials said that the ban had been imposed because of the recent issue of suspected pilots’ licences in PIA.

PIA was allowed to operate 12 direct special flights to the United States of which the airline had operated seven flights. The permission for the remaining five flights had now been revoked, according to the sources.