Passengers suffer as deadlock persists in Palpa-govt talks

KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and its passengers are set to suffer more with a rise in delayed and cancelled flights as the government on Monday rejected most of the demands put forward by the airline’s pilots association to end the standoff on pay and other working conditions after two days of failed talks, officials said.
PIA has suffered a loss of Rs500 million so far due to the standoff.
A spokesman for the Aviation Division termed Palpa’s demands as “unjustified” and “not acceptable to PIA management”.
“President Palpa...was called on by the Aviation Division on Monday and was informed that demands put forward by Palpa in their yesterday’s (Sunday) meeting (were) tantamount to challenging the writ of PIA management, hence not acceptable,” Sher Ali Khan, spokesman for the Aviation Division, said in a statement.
The pilots’ body, in a separate statement, asked the prime minister to intervene in the standoff. “We request the honourable prime minister to take notice of the situation and hear us out as the egos of those involved in discussion with us seem bigger than the national airline and national interest which is deteriorating the situation further,” said Capt Amir Hashmi, president of Palpa, in the statement.
The government rejected Palpa’s demands, including immediate replacement of the director of flight operations, withdrawal of all show-cause notices, inquiries/investigations and legal notices issued to pilots on disciplinary grounds and reinstatement of all grounded pilots and fixation of seniority of pilots “as per the wishes of Palpa”.
The aviation authority asked the pilots’ body to immediately resume the flight operation without any precondition. “However, the PIA management is willing to sit with Palpa representatives and listen to their legitimate demands,” the statement said.
The authority suggested to Palpa to constitute a team comprising four senior pilots of PIA and four representatives of Palpa, along with two observers from PIA management, which will formulate the future course of action to resolve all the pertaining issues “within 24 to 48 hours”.
“Unfortunately, the Palpa president refused to budge and insisted that Palpa’s three said demands be met forthwith,” the statement said. “This inflexible stance is causing inconvenience to the passengers and inflicting unnecessary financial and other losses to the national carrier.” The five-day-long standoff between the pilots’ association and the airline management resulted in cancellation of more than 66 flights and delays of hundreds of others.
After the second round of failed talks, the airline’s pilots body will hold a meeting on Tuesday (today) to decide its next move.
Palpa’s statement said the attitude of PIA and the Aviation Division towards the crisis is so “non-serious that they have rejected Palpa’s demand to honour the working agreement without even a discussion with them”.
“The only thing we have been asking the management to do is to implement the rules and regulations to plan and operate the flights, but the PIA management is giving an impression that we are challenging the writ of PIA,” Hashmi of Palpa said.
He said the impression that Palpa had demanded removal of the director of flight operations of the airline was “baseless” as the body only asked for retired employees to be sent home. Palpa said it will stick to its demands of compliance of safety rules and regulations, implementation of working agreement, a definite timing for the negotiation of proposed working agreement, no hiring of pilots on contract basis, withdrawal of all illegal inquiry and investigation notices and removal of clauses from the aviation policy, which are damaging the national flag carrier.
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) expressed its concerns over the ongoing rift between the Palpa and PIA management, which is causing inconvenience to passengers.
In a statement, IFALPA offered its assistance in resolving the issue as per the global rules.
“IFALPA appreciated the efforts of Palpa in its quest of flight and passenger safety and hoped that in the ongoing negotiations both parties will ensure implementation of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) safety rules,” the statement said.