UK withdraws PIA permit to operate from Birmingham, London and Manchester airports
The revelation of pilots holding “dubious” licences continued to take its toll as the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority said it was withdrawing the Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) permit to operate from three of its airports and the United Arab Emirates sought to verify the credentials of its Pakistani pilots and engineers.
“PIA flights from Birmingham, London Heathrow and Manchester airports are suspended with immediate effect,” a spokesman for the UK authority told Reuters on Tuesday. The three were major flying destinations for the airline.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates is seeking to verify the credentials of the Pakistani pilots and engineers employed in its airlines after the government grounded 262 pilots for holding “dubious” qualifications. The director general of the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi requested the verification of the credentials of Pakistani pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers, and flight operations officers working in the Middle Eastern country in a June 29 letter reviewed by Reuters to Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) Director General Hassan Nasir Jamy. “We would like to request your good offices to verify the licensing credentials of the attached pilots list who are currently holding UAE’s pilots licences based on licences and qualifications issued by PCAA,” the letter said. The aviation ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
The announcements come on the heels of the European Union Air Safety Agency’s (EASA) decision to suspend PIA’s operations in the bloc for the next six months. PIA operations suspended in EU states Earlier on Tuesday, PIA said in a press release that EASA had suspended the airline’s authorisation to operate in the bloc for six months. “EASA has temporarily suspended PIA’s authorisation to operate to the EU member states for a period of 6 months effective July 1, 2020, with the right to appeal against this decision,” a PIA statement said. It added that PIA would discontinue all its flights to European countries temporarily.
All passengers booked on its flights to European destinations will have the option to either extend their bookings to a later date or get a full refund....