The European Union has banned Pakistan International Airlines from its airspace for six months, citing safety concerns. Will Canada also ban troubled PIA?
European Union Bans PIA
Effective now, July 1, 2020, the European Union Air Safety Agency (EASA) has banned PIA from European airspace for six months, through December 31, 2020.
PIA finds itself embroiled in a credibility crisis after Pakistan’s Aviation Minister, Ghulam Sarwar, publicly accused up to 40% of pilots in Pakistan of operating with fake or invalid licenses. This came on the heels of a preliminary investigation blaming pilot error on the crash of PK8303, an Airbus A320 which killed 98 people during a crash in Karachi.
Live and Let’s Fly dug deeper and spoke to a PIA first officer who helped to clarify that the problem, though serious, may be overblown.
> Read More: A “Fake” Pilot From Pakistan International Airlines Speaks Out
Pakistan does have the right to appeal, but has thus far taken a conciliatory approach, stating:
PIA acknowledges the AAIB report and have already taken measures learning from it. An independent Flight Data Monitoring setup established to monitor & analyze all flights. All pilots with dubious licenses will be grounded. Safety is more imp. than any commercial interest
— PIA (@Official_PIA) June 24, 2020
At the same time, it has reminded the public that it is not responsible for issuing invalid licenses:
Dubious Pilots Licenses do not pertain to PIA alone. Let it be on record, these licenses were issued by the competent authority and are valid as per their records. It’s the process & discrepancies through which they were obtained, triggered the inquiry by GoP & action.
— PIA (@Official_PIA) June 25, 2020
Will Canada Follow With PIA Ban?
The United States banned PIA from its airspace in 2017 over safety concerns rooted in security. While PIA has not operated nonstop service between the USA and Pakistan, over the years it has operated Fifth Freedom service between Manchester, UK (MAN) and New York (JFK) as well as Chicago (ORD) and Barcelona (BCN). You can read my business class review of a MAN-JFK flight here.
But PIA continues to service Canada with triangle flights from Karachi (KHI) to Toronto (YYZ) [PK783] and Toronto (YYZ) to Islamabad (ISB) [PK782]. Could service to Canada also be in danger?
One immediate complication is that if PIA continues service to the UK and Canada, it will theoretically be unable to use EU airspace. That doesn’t preclude service, but makes it much more challenging and expensive due to the circuitous routing which may be required.
What PIA Ban? Two Flights To Europe Operating Today?
Even after the flight ban, PIA announced on Twitter that two flights, one to Milan and one to London, would be operating today:
PK719 Lahore to Milan &
PK720 Milan to Lahore
for 01 July 2020 will operate as per intended schedule.— PIA (@Official_PIA) June 30, 2020
PK785 Islamabad to London Heathrow &
PK786 London Heathrow to Islamabad
for 01 July 2020 will operate as per intended schedule.— PIA (@Official_PIA) June 30, 2020
It is not clear upon which authority those flights are operating.
CONCLUSION
This is a difficult time for Pakistan International Airlines, though the pandemic and corresponding drop in demand helps somewhat to soften the blow of the EU actions. Pakistani authorities have promised transparency in its investigations and the credibility of PIA depends upon it.
> Read More on PIA:
- Pakistan International Airlines 777 Business Class Manchester To New York
- Pakistan International Airlines A320 Crashes, Killing 97 Onboard
- Where The Two Survivors Were Sitting When PIA Airbus A320 Crashed
- Another A320 Scare On Pakistan International Airlines
- Report: Careless Pilots Blamed For PIA A320 Crash
- It’s Time To Blacklist Pakistan International Airlines…
- Exclusive: A “Fake” Pilot From Pakistan International Airlines Speaks Out
image: Laurent Errera / Wikimedia Commons
The UK is still a member of EASA during the transition period out of the EU so this ban will also apply to UK airspace. Flights can still be operated in to the EU using wet lease aircraft so hypothetically those flights that were mentioned may be on aircraft operated by other airlines. That being said the flight to London does seem to be on a PIA operated 777 so I am unsure of how that flight got approved though it has yet to enter EU airspace and potentially, though unlikely, be turned back.
Please correct the name of Aviation minister. His name is Ghulam Sarwar. You wrote wrong name of Pakistan minister.
Thank you Burhan! Correction made.
Hi
Mr klint
Im developing a liking for your blogs though not a frequent flyer myself
Sorry
Just correcting my email