Pakistani city of Karachi – Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the country’s national flag carrier, aims to resume European flight operations in March, after being banned in 2020 due to safety concerns, according to the country’s aviation minister.
Ghulam Sarwar Khan, speaking at a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday, claimed the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had cleared Pakistani aviation in a late-last-year safety audit, and that PIA has requested to resume European operations.
Following the crash of a PIA Airbus A320 in the southern city of Karachi, which killed 97 passengers and prompted a subsequent government investigation into fraudulent licencing practises, Europe’s aviation regulator, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), suspended flights operated by Pakistani carriers in 2020.
Following the probe, Aviation Minister Khan announced on Thursday that 50 Pakistani pilots’ licences had been revoked, and five Pakistani Civil Aviation Authority personnel had been sacked and charged with fraud.
According to him, at least eight PIA pilots were fired as a result of the probe.
“We’re looking to resume [PIA flight] operations in Europe in February or March,” he said.
An Al Jazeera investigation in July 2020 discovered extensive suspicions of fraud in Pakistani pilot licence procedures. Several pilots expressed concerns about safety standards, with one senior pilot calling the situation “a ticking time bomb.”
Since 2010, five major commercial or charter airliner crashes have occurred in Pakistan, killing at least 445 people.
Official reports suggest that over the same time period, numerous non-fatal aircraft accidents occurred, including mid-flight engine shutdowns, landing gear failures, runway overruns, and at least one on-the-ground collision.
The declaration comes a day after the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) gave Pakistan’s civil aviation regulator the green light to address key safety concerns after an audit team visited the country late in 2021.
Khan stated that Pakistan was reforming its pilot certification procedure, and that the country had signed a deal with the UK civil aviation authorities for pilots to be certified and tested in collaboration with that agency.
