Civil Aviation Authority punishes 4 airlines

International flights withheld for cancelling 383 domestic flights

The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has withheld, with immediate effect, permission to four airlines to operate international chartered flights after they cancelled 383 scheduled domestic flights in 18 days. The move was to allow smooth operation of domestic flight, the CAA said.

The CAA took cognisance of complaints and feedback that the four airlines have been cancelling confirmed scheduled domestic flights on the pretext of operational reasons. Thereafter, these airlines had been using the same aircraft for international chartered operations in lieu of the scheduled domestic flights, the CAA said.

The four Pakistani airlines i.e. Pakistan International Airlines, SereneAir, Airblue, and AirSial have been issued warning notices by the Director Air Transport of the CAA. The notices have been issued to safeguard the rights of the Pakistani air passengers.

From Oct. 1 to Oct. 18 these four airlines were supposed to operate total 1,145 domestic flights in Pakistan as 383 of them had been cancelled.

The Civil Aviation Authority said the cancellation of domestic flights, if any, will only be made consequent upon technical reasons or force majeure circumstances.