The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has indefinitely extended the suspension of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight operations to the EU (european bloc) until it has all the necessary information “available to decide on the way forward”.
Nine months ago, in July 2020, the EASA suspended PIA’s Third Country Operations Authorization (TCOA) following Pakistan’s grounding of the pilots followed by a preliminary report on a PIA crash in Karachi that killed 97 people in 2020.
Again, the EASA suspended PIA flight operations to the EU in February 2021, after the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) made public a ‘Significant Safety Concern for Pakistan”, indicating a serious degradation of Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority certification and oversight capabilities.
In its latest review, the EASA rejected the PCAA offer stating that the information shared by the Pakistani authority did not help end their uneasiness about PCAA oversight. It added that under the legal instruments, the Third Country Operations Authorization of PIA must be revoked.
The EASA informed the CAA and PIA that “their offer to use only flight crew and engineers not holding Pakistani licenses does not fully mitigate all concerns regarding the oversight capabilities of the PCAA”.
“At this moment, the EASA therefore considers that not all conditions required to lift the suspension are met.
EASA should now revoke the TCOA (Third Country Operations Authorization) in line with EASA, ART.235(c)(1) of Part-ART.
However, the EASA has decided not to take any drastic action against PIA and chose to extend the suspension indefinitely till all necessary information is available.
ICAO audit of Pakistan, scheduled in summer 2021 will bring some hope of lifting of the ban , till such time, there will be continuous technical consultations between the two regulatory authorities to revive the confidence in pakistani CAA oversight capability. So , even if it is expected , it will be after the Summer -2021.
