Oct 05 , 2015
News
Second phase of govt-Palpa talks today
KARACHI: The second round of talks between the Aviation Division and Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (PALPA) is taking place in Islamabad today (Monday).
The spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has said the talks were successful on Sunday and a breakthrough was expected today.
However, according to reports, passengers continue to suffer as 65 flights have been cancelled in the last five days. If there is no breakthrough today, the number could climb further.
Speaking to Geo News, a spokesman for PALPA said no agreement was reached during the meeting on Sunday. “We have put our demands and also given detailed explanations... now it’s up to them to respond,” he said.
Due to the standoff, PIA suffered losses amounting to millions of rupees and the passengers continue to hang in limbo. The dispute surfaced after the watchdog CAA suspended licenses of two pilots for violating the flight duty time limitation (FDTL).
The aviation watchdog in an earlier statement said the PIA pilots deliberately violated the flight safety rules and disregarded the CAA regulations adding that the aviation watchdog had followed all formalities of legal proceedings in order to give the cockpit crew a fair chance to justify the reasons of such gross safety violations.
It said the pilots failed to justify their actions and, therefore, “a punitive action against the air crew, as per the Civil Aviation Rules, has been imposed.”
Palpa said the officials of Aviation Division will meet the senior management of the national flag carrier today (Monday) and apprise them of the meeting with the pilot body.
He said the pilots body hopes that the government will revert after discussing their demands with the airline management.
Sources said Palpa had discussed immediate withdrawal of all “illegal disciplinary proceedings against its member pilots”, a new aviation policy, implementation of PIA’s 2011/2013 working agreement with the pilots association and clearing all outstanding issues related to pensions, medical allowances, training and tickets.
Courtesy www.thenews.com.pk