Foreign airlines told to restart Peshawar operations by 31st

ISLAMABAD: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has set December 31 as a deadline for foreign airlines – mainly from the Gulf – to restart operations from Peshawar or discontinue services if they feel the security situation is a threat. The Senate Standing Committee on Defence and Defence Production was told about the deadline at a meeting on Thursday that was presided over by Lt Gen (r) Javed Ashraf and briefed by CAA Director General Muhammad Amin Junaid. The committee was told that foreign airlines were given the option to operate from Islamabad instead of Peshawar until the security situation improved. But it has been observed that while foreign airlines – which are now also able to carry Islamabad passengers on aircraft previously operating from Peshawar – are benefiting from the situation at the cost of Pakistani airlines’ revenue. As a result, the CAA director general said PIA and other local airlines had been suffering huge losses. He said it had also been observed that foreign airlines benefiting from the situation were reluctant to operate from Peshawar. In view of this situation, the foreign airlines have been asked to operate from Peshawar or discontinue their services for the Peshawar station until normalcy returns to the provincial capital. The committee directed the CAA to take action against airlines using “old and uncomfortable” aircraft for Pakistani passengers who were charged international fares. Citing their own travel experiences, the chairman and members of the committee said Saudi Airlines, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines and Emirates Air were using “old and uncomfortable aircraft to carry international passengers from Pakistan ... they switch to the latest and comfortable aircraft in their own countries for onward international flights”. The committee members recommended that the CAA take action against airlines if they continued using outdated aircraft and ask such airlines to replace existing aircraft with new ones. The members were also critical of the PIA’s service quality. “PIA should be fined if it doesn’t improve service,” they said. The committee members also directed the CAA to focus on passengers’ comfort and sector development in the proposed aviation policy. Junaid told the committee that the authority had established a new section to monitor and check overcharging by airlines. He said the CAA would opt to refer issues related to airlines to the newly-established Competition Commission of Pakistan. Additional Secretary Ministry of Defence Maj Gen (r) Mir Haider Ali Khan told the committee that all non-regulatory activities of the CAA would be privatised when the government made a decision on the subject and the authority would have to limit its role to a regulator. The committee also recommended that the CAA construct a new airport in Peshawar near Pabbi or Nowshera.

Source: dailytimes.com.pk