KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has cancelled at least 41 local and international flights since Thursday morning and the number of cancellations may increase to 50 flights by tomorrow (Saturday) after some 14 pilots refused to fly aircraft, the airline chairman said on Friday. A total of 14 pilots from Karachi took sick leaves two hours prior to their flight schedule, said Chairman Nasser A Jaffer at the PIA Headquarters, addressing a press briefing. Jaffer apologised to passengers for their inconvenience following the cancellation of flights. “It is my responsibility that the flight operations should run smoothly,” he said. He said PIA was providing alternate to its passengers by shifting them to other private airlines. “Our call centre is informing passengers through phone and SMS, about the cancelled flights,” he added. Jaffer didn’t share the revenue loss numbers. He said though Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (Palpa) has not announced an official strike yet it was encouraging pilots to go on sick leaves at the last minute. He said the Haj flight schedule had also been affected. Chairman Jaffer said talks were already going on with Palpa. “I’m available to negotiate with Palpa. We are also going through their working agreement, which has been given to the management. The PIA management is constantly engaged with Palpa to amicably resolve the matter at the earliest,” he added. General Manger Industrial Relations at PIA said Palpa had submitted a 77-page working agreement, demanding to double their pay and perks to Rs6.6 billion from the current Rs3.3 billion per annum. Meanwhile, President Palpa Capt Amir Hashmi, in a statement, said the pilots did not cause delays in any Haj flight and the management of the national airline was passing the blame of its inefficiency on to the pilots. “We had already directed all our members not to delay any Haj flight,” said Hashmi. He said pilots were caught in double jeopardy. “The flights, planned by inefficient scheduling department, exceed flight duty time and are required to be operated by two crew sets which are denied by the administration,” he added. “If pilots operate these flights they will be a subject to CAA’s (Civil Aviation Authority) victimisation and their licence will be cancelled which has precedence.” Hashmi said the Palpa office-bearers and members were still going out of the way to minimise the hardships faced by passengers. “We have been trying to talk to the management for three months on the working agreement, so it is wrong to say that the current situation has developed due to the cancellation of the licences of our two pilots,” he added. While responding to the allegations levelled by a PIA spokesman against the pilots, the Palpa president said they wanted that affairs should be run in a professional manner and as per the laws but the management had always adopted faulty policies.
