KARACHI: Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) has warned PIACL management to stop forthwith and take serious note of practice of delaying flights before this issue ends up in an embarrassing situation and leads to yet another major accident.  

PIA should be a role model for private operators but unfortunately, over a period of time, it has been observed that performance of PIA is deteriorating day to day while private operators with limited resources are performing much better than PIA.

Flight duty record of Pakistan International Airlines in last seven months from December 2021 to July 2022 shows that operator was unable to manage flight and duty time limitation of its crew members. Since December 2021 PIA had asked regulator Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) for waiver on exceedance of flights and duty time limit of its crew members on 55 flights. Average comes to eight flights per month, which is quite a high number as compared to other operators and is not acceptable to PCAA.

Most of reasons given for exceedances were merely company’s fault, whereas ANO is very clear about it that extension in duty time is only for unforeseen problems and categories of those unforeseen problems are very clearly mentioned in ANO. According to PCAA, it seems that PIA has made it a regular practice without giving any heed to cumulative fatigue setting in crew members which can lead to yet another major Accident.      

While recognising “effect of fatigue on performance” ICAO has recommended contracting states establish regulations specifying limitations applicable to flight time, flight duty period and rest period for flight crew members. ICAO mandates fatigues and consequential risk management through state-enacted regulations to enhance safety of flight.  Aviation industry all over world is considered to be safest means of travel but on other hand, a small little mistake can be more catastrophic than any other means of travel on ground or sea.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 24 2022

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