Tag: fake pilot licences

  • ‘Fake pilot licences’: UN staffers asked to avoid Pakistani airlines

    ‘Fake pilot licences’: UN staffers asked to avoid Pakistani airlines

    The Pakistani aviation industry is still suffering from the fallout of a controversial statement made by the aviation minister last year wherein he had accused the Pakistani pilots of having fake credentials.

    In the latest blow to the aviation sector, the United Nations has asked its staffers to avoid travelling on the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and other airlines registered in Pakistan.

    Ghulam Sarwar, the aviation minister, had made the controversial statement in parliament in the aftermath of a deadly aircraft crash in Karachi that had resulted in the death of at least 98 people. Following the crash, the minister had blamed the pilot for the crash and said most pilots in the PIA didn’t even a required qualification to fly the planes.

    His statement created an uproar, resulting in a ban on Pakistani pilots. The ban in Europe still persists.

    A report in Geo News quoted an advisory issued by the UN Security Management System asking its employees to stop using the Pakistani airlines for travelling.

    “Due to an ongoing investigation of the CAA [Civil Aviation Authority] Pakistan…due to dubious licenses caution is advised on the use of Pakistan-registered air operators,” said the statement.

    The advisory has been issued for all Pakistan-registered carriers and has been recommended to all the UN agencies, including the UN Development Programme, World Health Organization, UN High Commission for Refugees, Food and Agriculture Organization, UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization and others.

    The advisory by the UN also drew flak by a journalist who covers the aviation beat. Tahir Imran said that the advisory was “created by some dumb official at the UN” because it includes “cargo airlines” as well.

    “Unless there are heavyweights working with the UN Pakistan who needs cargo aircraft to travel around,” he said while taking a jibe at the UN.

  • Over 3,500 PIA employees likely to lose jobs

    Over 3,500 PIA employees likely to lose jobs

    Pakistan has approved funding of about $81 million in cash to support flagship carrier Pakistan International Airlines’ planned voluntary redundancy scheme, which could affect thousands of jobs.

    The loss-making carrier has been looking to reduce costs, particularly since the impact of the pandemic, as well as the fallout from a fake pilot credentials scandal.

    PIA is aiming to cut roughly one-third of its workforce, Reuters reported, which would reduce the airline’s headcount to roughly 7,000-7,500 employees from the around 11,000 staff PIA said it employed in its 2019 annual report.

    The government has approved Rs12.87 billion ($81.46 million) in funding for the airline to move forward on the voluntary retirement scheme, the news agency reported.

    In a statement on Tuesday, the government said: “After … discussion, it was decided to approve, in principal, the voluntary separation from service scheme for PIA.”

    PIA said it was looking to reduce its aircraft to employee ratio to 250 employees per aircraft. PIA spokesman Abdullah H. Khan said the scheme was part of the airline’s plan to restructure and bring employee numbers closer to industry standards.

    “Employees will be offered an attractive voluntary separation scheme and people would have 14 days to avail (themselves of) the offer,” Khan told Reuters.

    The targeted staff ratio is high compared with neighbouring India, where Air India has roughly 130 employees per aircraft, based on Indian government data.

    In a business plan submitted to the government last year, PIA said it was looking to have fewer than 5,500 people working on 45 aircraft – or fewer than 125 employees per aircraft – by 2021.

    The government statement on Tuesday gave no further details on the redundancy scheme or how many pilots or other categories of staff would be affected.

    Earlier this year, the government said PIA had a total of 434 pilots. Some of their jobs have been terminated in an ongoing process of investigating their credentials.

    The pilot scandal has tainted Pakistan’s aviation industry and stung PIA, which has been barred from flying to Europe and the United States after dozens of its pilots were named by the country’s own civil aviation regulator for holding allegedly “dubious” licences.

    Pakistan’s pilots union, which raised questions on the investigation, cast doubts over the voluntary redundancy scheme.

    “I think this scheme will fail as it would take two and half years to complete,” Captain Salman Riaz, president of the Pakistan Airline Pilots Association, told Reuters in a message.

    PIA’s move comes as other airlines globally cut costs sharply amid travel restrictions and a collapse in global air travel during the pandemic.