KARACHI: European Union Commission has refused on Wednesday to lift the banon allowing Pakistani flights to operate in their territory due to a numberof reservations that it said Pakistan has yet to address.

The aviation department of Pakistan needs to make its pilot licensingauthority more transparent, said the EU Commission, noting that issuance oflicenses to pilots has to be via a fool-proof protocol.

The EU also objected to the safety procedures of Pakistani aviationindustry noting that it needs to work on that before EU could allow it backin the operations.

READ: PIA incurs Rs280mn loss after suspension of EU flightslink

It may be noted that earlier, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)reported to have incurred a loss of Rs280 million after suspension of itsflight operation to and from the EU states, Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwarinformed the National Assembly.

In a written link reply, he said thenational flag carrier’s receipts from its flight operation in the EU blocfell to Rs1.41 billion from Rs1.69 billion in July-August 2020.

However, the minister said the airline raked in a sum of Rs520 million fromits Pakistan-UK flights during this period. He saidlink it hired the services of Maltacompany for flights between the two countries besides operating fourroundtrip charter flights during coronavirus lockdowns.

The PIA raked in Rs5.81 billion revenue as against expenditure to the tuneof Rs5.31 billion, he added.