Pilots on strike

The stand-off between the Pakistan International Airlines and the Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (Palpa) entered its fifth day on Monday. The strike by the pilots’ association has come at a poor time for the national air carrier, which had already been under pressure due to the high volume of air traffic during this Haj season. The clash started when the Civil Aviation Authority revoked the licences of two pilots for various violations of rules and regulations. This became the catalyst for a decision by pilots not to fly a number of selected routes for the airline over the past four days. This has also led to the cancellation of over 65 flights and affected over 5,000 passengers, who have been left stranded at different airports. The PIA administration has blamed pilots for refusing to comply with CAA-determined rules and regulations. However, Palpa officials claim that the revoked licences only became a simmering point that has allowed them to bring up a number of issues they had been raising with the PIA administration for some time now.
According to the Palpa leadership, pilots have been discussing their issues with the special assistant to the prime minister for aviation for a year now, but nothing has so far been done to resolve the rift. Their issues include a need to revise Palpa’s working agreement, an ongoing dispute over the current PIA director flight operations and various violations of rules and regulations on the part of the PIA management. Hiring pilots on contract while putting others out of commission on a whim are also on the list of reported violations of the working agreement that the pilots’ association is agitated about. The pilots have also claimed serious scheduling issues caused by an inefficient department. Before the press conference on Friday, the PIA management held a meeting with all member associations, minus Palpa, to apparently resolve the issue. The PIA chairman has continued to claim ignorance of the issues raised by pilots. In the meanwhile, this battle of egos has been good for no one, with the first round of talks on Sunday ending unsuccessfully. The second round of negotiations on Monday was expected to lead to some common ground but ended in deadlock, with the CAA spokesperson saying that Palpa’s ‘inappropriate demands’ were unacceptable to PIA. With 65 PIA flights cancelled, passengers travelling on an emergency basis have had to pay double to triple fares on other domestic airlines. The fact is that the stand-off between the PIA management and Palpa has affected passengers the most. This is hardly good for the credibility of both the national airline and its pilots.