The Pakistani civil aviation regulator, Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) has clarified that it did not issue any official statement regarding the resumption of flights to Europe, and any such media circulation on this subject should be considered “mere speculation”.
The CAA spokesperson said a national aviation regulator delegation led by the Secretary of Aviation was present in Brussels. The delegation will attend the May 14 meeting of the Air Safety Committee.
CAA spokesperson said CAA has not stated the resumption of flights and speculations should be avoided in the interest of the country. He said,
“It is reminded again that the PCAA has not issued any official statement on the matter, and any media reports on this issue should be considered mere speculation. The PCAA advises that such speculation should be avoided in the interest of the country.”
CAA said that the European Commission would announce the results of the meeting after completing due procedure. The European Commission will issue an immediate statement on the results of the meeting.
Recently, it was being reported in the Pakistani media that the national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), is gearing up to restore its direct flight operations to Paris in June this year, followed by England in August.
In another development, Pakistan is currently in the process of privatising its loss-making national carrier with Government seeking the final schedule for the implementation of the sell-off.
A detailed plan for the privatisation was apparently finalised recently, pending cabinet approval. However, it was granted two days before the General Elections, but progress on the privatisation has since been slow till date.
The decline started when a fake degree case confessed by Pakistani aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan in the assembly was taken up seriously around the world, to which even ICAO ( International Civil Aviation Organization) took a note, advising its staff to avoid flying PIA.
The South asian country also faced a wide spread corruption and scandals involving Aircraft purchases, which was killing the competitiveness of the airline to give a match to international airlines.
It's worth noting the EASA banned the PIA from flying to its most lucrative routes in Europe and the UK after the crash of a PIA plane in Karachi killed nearly 100 people and a fake pilot licence scandal erupted later in 2020.
The EASA ban is still in place and has cost the airline nearly PKR40 billion in revenue annually, according to government records presented in parliament.
You may like to read...
