Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), a beleagured ailine, faced a highly awkward situation when its two ground engineers refused to perform duty in PK-741 (Islamabad-Jeddah) over non-availability of seats in 'Business Class', causing delay in flight departure for almost an hour, sources said here on Monday.
They said that flight PK-741, which was scheduled to fly from Islamabad airport at around 0855 PST, had departed after an almost an hour's delay and landed at Jeddah airport at 1345 hours instead of 1220 hours, due to an "unwarranted scene" created by two ground engineers of the airline.
They said that there was a race in PIA where its pilots and engineers strived to display transcendence over each other and added that several incidents were reported in past where pilots showed zero-tolerance over non-availability of Business Class seats. Now, the same gesture is demonstrated by the members of Society of Aircraft Engineers of Pakistan (SAEP).
They answered that all seats were booked and there was no space for ground engineers in Business Class hence the airline had confirmed their seats in Economy Class. However, both ground engineers refused to fly with PK-741 over non-availability of seats in 'Business Class' that caused an hour delay in flight departure. Later, high-ups in engineering department intervened and successfully persuaded them to make do with Economy Class.
Moreover, sources said that General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) of Saudi Arabia had recently penalised PIA and issued a strong reprimand over flight delays and added that this incident may also cost heavily to the airline, which is already in a terrible condition owing to a daily operational loss of Rs 450 million, approximately.
When contacted, Hanif Rana, spokesman for PIA, confirmed the said incident, saying that two ground engineers had refused to perform duty in flight PK741 over non-availability of seats in Business Class. He also said that airline as per agreement was bound to accommodate its pilots and engineers in Business Class but all seats were booked in PK-741; hence seats for engineers were allotted in Economy Class.