Pakistan Air Line Pilots' Association (Palpa) has requested the Director, Flight Operations (DFO), PIA, to plan the forthcoming Hajj operations, without layover at Peshawar, as was successfully done last year. Captain T M Rabbani, Palpa General Secretary, has in a request letter sent to the DFO said this was desired considering the safety, security and genuine concern of Palpa members in view of deteriorating law and order situation of Peshawar city.
Referring to the previous correspondence regarding crew slip at Peshawar, Palpa's executive committee has learnt that the management is planning the forthcoming Hajj flights with slip at Peshawar. Captain Rabbani has drawn DFO's attention to clauses 3.1.1 (b) & 3.6 of Palpa-PIAC working agreement 2009-2011, according to which all patterns/slips have to be discussed before finalisation and implementation.
Copies of the letter have been sent to Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence, and General Manager, Crew Planning & Scheduling, PIAC. In another development, the time-tested practice of informing the pilots of flight schedule and their duties through roster would be discontinued after November 1, 2010.
General Manager, Crew Planning & Scheduling, Captain/Haroon Abdullah has through a letter informed all cockpit crew that PIA in collaboration with Warid Telecommunication has introduced a mobile Short Messaging Service (SMS). All cockpit crew will be provided with a mobile phone connection including a handset for use. Accordingly, all cockpit crews have been requested to collect mobile phones and sim card as follows:
-- All Karachi-based cockpit crews to collect from the office of Manager Crew Planning, Amer Raza during office hours latest by September 30.
-- All Islamabad cockpit crews are to collect from the office of General Manager, North, Captain Qasim Hayat during office hours effective September 18 till September 30, and;
-- All Lahore based cockpit crews will be able to collect from the Crew Co-ordination Office on September 27 and 28 during office hours.
The letter further said: "An amount of Rs 500 will be credited to your mobile phone account every month which will allow you to make officials calls as and when required to various offices regarding your duties or for any other official matters. Any amount exceeding Rs 500 will be deducted from your salary."
Effective October 1, all cockpit crews will be informed through SMS by the concerned scheduler regarding any changes or other pertinent information. The arrangement of sending letters will be discontinued effective November 1, unless extreme emergency.
All cockpit crews have been requested "to take good care of their mobile set and sim card personally and keep the phone ON at all times when you are in Pakistan." Palpa has, however, described flight duty information through SMS as "illegal". In a press release issued here, it said that instead of bringing financial discipline to make the national flag carrier a viable entity and nation's pride, the management has come up with another financially unviable idea of conveying instructions about flight schedule to the pilots through SMS giving the impression that its frequent flight delays are due to improper communication. Palpa spokesman said that this "activity will prove to be futile as it is not the lack of information but actually the ill-planned and ineffective planning of rosters which jeopardises timely departure of flights."
He said that the SMS project will unnecessarily cost PIA around Rs five million annually, while 600 mobile phones would have to be purchased additionally; besides PIA is bound to foot the monthly bill of Rs 500 for each connection. PIA management's issue with pilots mainly relates to compliance with the global safety procedures in which the national carrier seeks concessions from Civil Aviation Authority.