ISLAMABAD: Minister for Aviation Khawaja Saad Rafique on Thursday said Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) recently entered into a code-share agreement with Turkish Airlines and will start PIA flights operation to Istanbul with four weekly flights from Islamabad and two from Lahore.
Speaking on the National Assembly floor, he said that PIA would operate up to Istanbul and transfer passengers for onward destinations in the UK, USA and Europe (29 destinations).
He further informed that similar code-share agreements would be signed with other countries in order to boost the institution. “We are trying our best to purchase more planes for PIA to raise its standard as par with other international aviation companies.”
He said that consistent five years of hard work, merit-based promotions, transfers and induction would ensure the development of PIA.
He also criticised the PTIs former minister Sarwar Khan for denting the PIA institution at the international level by giving irresponsible statements regarding fake degrees of pilots.
Khawaja said: “Since 2009, PIA remained compliant with European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulation and operated flights to/from EU states safely till 30th June 2020. In between, EASA undertook regular two yearly safety audits in 2015, 2017, and 2019. Various observations that surfaced during these audits, were amicably addressed as per the defined timeline.” Two Pakistani airlines namely PIA and Vision Air have EASA-TCO (third country operator) authorization, he said, adding that PIA is maintaining EASA-TCO authorization since 2016 while Vision Air obtained this authorization in 2020. “Flight operations of both airlines to EU member states were suspended from 1st July 2020 primarily because of irregularities in the pilot-licensing process. However, while suspending PIA authorization, EASA has also quoted some SMS compliance issues pending since the last audit of 2019.” The minister informed the floor that consequent to suspension effective since 1st July 2020, PIA embarked upon a swift recovery plan, owing to the following actions: On 2nd December 2020, EASA accepted all deliverables submitted by PIACL for closure of Level-1 finding related to Organizational SMS but linked the reinstatement of Third Country Operator (TCO) Authorization with safety concerns on licenses issued by PCAA.
