Staff Reporter
Karachi
The Secretary Aviation/DGCAA Shahrukh Nusrat has asked the airlines to take necessary steps to rationalize their air fares, especially on the occasions of religious significance. He was presiding over the 2nd Meeting of Aviation Oversight Committee recently held here at Headquarters of Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
The Secretary Aviation/DGCAA informed the air operators that in compliance with the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan, all scheduled air carriers shall be required to operate 5 per cent of their total capacity – available seat kilometres (ASKs) – on primary routes and another 5 per cent on socio-economic routes. “In case of non-compliance on above directives, the RPT(s)/airline(s) not operating on the primary and socio-economic routes shall compensate the RPT(s)/airline(s) operating on these routes for the loss –if any- suffered from subject operations”, he added.
He also informed the participants of the meeting that CAA has submitted a proposal for further relaxation in aircraft age requirements -especially for air cargo and flying schools- as stated in Annex-G of National Aviation Policy (NAP)-2019. “CAA has approved the said amendments and the matter is in process at Aviation Division for approval”, he added. The Secretary also informed the participants that all the CAA Regulations have been revised to align with NAP 2019. The operators are being brought in line with new Regulations. Accordingly, the implementation of the condition of three billing cycles will be finalized in due course of time for RPT license holders.
The participants were also apprised that due to aircraft availability issues for flight operations under Tourism Promotion & Regional Integration (TPRI) License, the seating capacity condition has been removed from NAP-2019 and will be decided by the authority (CAA) after due deliberation on case to case basis. Shahrukh Nusrat further said that as per directions of Prime Minister of Pakistan, all operators that are operating to or from Pakistan are required to use paper or bio-degradable material instead of conventional plastic/polythene ensuring that Aviation sector contributes positively towards environment friendly measures being initiated in the country.
“Aviation Division and CAA shall ensure continuous monitoring and improvement through feedback from operators through Aviation Oversight Committee meetings” he remarked. When an air operator highlighted constraints in importing spare parts/engines for aircraft because of State Bank’s Policy, Secretary Aviation/DGCAA assured him of a meeting with SBP officials to resolve the issue.
On pointing out a few issues related to flying schools and clubs, Secretary Aviation promised to hold an exclusive meeting for this purpose which now has been scheduled on 16th September 2019 at Islamabad.
