EU ban on PIA flights may be lifted soon as CAA clears safety audit

The Senate Standing Committee on Aviation was told on Thursday that a validation committee of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) had cleared a safety audit report after which the ban imposed by the European Union on the PIA is expected to be lifted soon.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency had suspended the authorisation of PIA to operate in EU member countries in July 2020 over licensing and flight safety concerns.

The licensing scandal had negatively affected Pakistan’s aviation industry and the country had grounded 262 airline pilots suspected of skipping their exams following checks of their qualifications.

The upper house panel met under the chairmanship of Saleem Mandviwalla on Thursday.

Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) DG told the committee that the ICAO’s audit was the “toughest” in the history. He said the CAA had addressed nine out of 10 reservations of the ICAO regarding safety measures and acquired an aggregate of 72% marks.

He said according to a mail received by the ICAO, the electronic bulletin will be issued by it in the second week of January while a final report will be issued by March.

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The Senate body was told that criminal and departmental action had been taken against those involved in the fake licence case. It was said that the FIA had registered five FIRs and arrested 60 people.

The CAA DG informed the committee that the pilots’ exams had been outsourced adding that the pilots will have to pay 75% fee while appearing in paper for the first time, 25% for the second and full fee for the third time. It was said that an internal exam system will be developed in two years’ time.

Separately, the Senate Sub-Committee on Aviation underlined the need for streamlining the matters related to issuance of fresh licences to airline operations for domestic and international flights with certain amendments in the Civil Aviation Rules-1994 and the National Aviation Policy-2019.

"This issue is of prime importance and rules should be drawn to provide facilities to RPT (Regular Public Transport) operators and not problems," Mandviwalla observed after representatives of RPT operators informed that the airline operators had to face two to three years delay in getting fresh licence for domestic and international flights.

(With input from APP)