ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will resume flightsto Europe in the first quarter of 2022, the PIA chief executive officer hassaid.
The PIA chief’s statement came after an International Civil AviationOrganization’s (ICAO) validation committee cleared a safety audit report onthe Pakistani flag carrier this month.
In July 2020, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) hadsuspended the authorization of PIA to operate in EU member countries overlicensing and flight safety concerns.
The licensing scandal tainted Pakistan’s aviation industry and the countrygrounded 262 airline pilots suspected of dodging their exams followingchecks of their qualifications.
An ICAO audit team visited Pakistan to undertake a safety audit of theaviation authority and completed the process on December 10. However, itsfinal report has yet to be released, after which the Significant SafetyConcerns (SSC) would be gradually eased out.
PIA CEO Arshad Malik said in an interview this week: “You’ll be glad toknow that very recently the ICAO Audit has also been conducted. Althoughformal information has not been shared with us, but we are very, verypositive.”
“I think by next year’s first quarter, we should be able to fly out ourwings to Europe, and the ban should be lifted.”
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He said he sorted out in-house affairs of the airlines and brought thesafety and quality team under his control. “I got an Air Vice Marshall tolook after the safety aspect. We presented ourselves to Pakistan CivilAviation, and thereafter, the international auditors came.”
Malik said unfortunately, there had been political intervention in theorganization for about two decades and there were people who were gettingstronger rather than the organization.
“The people started to merge together in associations and in unions, andthey were trying to manipulate and they were trying to control theorganization,” he said.
“Over a period of time because of these interventions, we had lostmerit-oriented decisions. We were also not taking commercial-baseddecisions. We were being dictated upon. Once all these things were goingon, naturally, your performance indicators started to go down.”
