National carrier, Pakistan International Airlines is being grilled by international authorities over incessant flight delays which are adding to the woes of the national airline that is already breaking down due to heavy debt. This time Qatar aviation authorities have issued a warning to PIA for not operating flights as per agreed timings and not even bothering to inform them about delayed arrivals/departures there.
In a letter to PIA, Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) said that on February 4, PK-287 scheduled from Islamabad to Doha requested eight hours delayed landing on February 5 at 4 GMT, but the airport authorities suggested that it could be operated at around 6am GMT due to congestion at Doha.
QCAA said PK-287 had already departed from Islamabad to land at 5:20 GMT in Doha, which called for investigation. Replying to QCAA, the PIA management said PK-287 initially was delayed by three hours on February 4 and later it was further delayed by eight hours. All information was subsequently conveyed to concerned sections at Doha. QCAA while showing dissatisfaction issued a notice saying that PIA did not take approval for the said landing and information of landing was provided in routine whereas this needed a proper approval which was not given by the QCAA.
While reprimanding PIA management for lacking professionalism, QCAA said that such actions did not help anyone and PIA should remind its airport staff to fully comply with the requirements. The snubbing of PIA at the hands of international bodies does not stop here. On January 31 last month, Delhi International Airport (DIAL) had sent a stern; rather embarrassing reminder that it was still waiting on confirmation of seating capacity of PIA's record in order to update their master data.
"In order to update MTOW/seating capacity in DIAL's master data with actual airline's record a letter on December 24 was sent to you, but confirmation of seating capacity from you has not been received till date ie January 31," it was pointed out in the letter. That showed the nonchalant attitude of PIA management as despite more than a month had been passed but they were not responding to the request, perturbed insiders said, adding that that way the loss was of only PIA and no body, considering this attitude, would take them seriously at international airports.
It may be pointed out that PIA faced penalty of 50,000 Euros for violating flight/slot operations at the busiest airport of Frankfurt in Germany not long ago. A series of PIA scheduled flights from Frankfurt were cancelled without permission of the Federal Aviation Authority Germany, creating disturbance for the authority in the slot allocation to different International carriers at the airport.
For example, a flight from Frankfurt to Amsterdam to Lahore was cancelled that left the slot space spared at the airport but the airport authorities were not able to reserve it for flights of other international airlines as they didn't get any information of cancellation in advance from PIA.
Quite surprisingly, PIA management while giving flimsy response to Frankfurt Airport Authority stated that they had to cancel the flight at the last moment due to a leakage in its fuel tank, and that's why they couldn't inform the authority about the cancellation.
According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a penalty of upto Euro 50,000 was to be imposed on PIA as per German Traffic Law while a clarification was also sought from the PIA. Sometime back, Medina Airport Authority had also issued a warning to PIA for not conveying properly information of incoming flights there. A similar warning was issued by Dubai Airport Authority too as PIA's operations remained uncertain for the period of two to three months. The authority then warned PIA to face penalties along with downgrading of its status, as Dubai being one of the busiest airports of the world faces problems if any airline does not adhere to allotted times for incoming and outgoing flights. Insiders said PIA management should strictly follow the air traffic rules of the countries where it had flight operations not only to avoid penalties but maintain reputation of the national flag carrier as well.