ISLAMABAD: Minister for Housing and Works Makhdoom Shahbuddin said on Thursday that a number of steps were being taken by Pakistan International Airlines to control and minimize delay in flights.
Speaking on behalf of the Defence Minister during question- hour session of the National Assembly, he said all station heads, passenger handling divisions and Managers had been advised to streamline their services in this regard.
He said PIA operated total 51,133 flights (sector wise) during the year 2010, out of which 16,358 were delayed due to some technical and unavoidable reasons and 4740 due to bad weather conditions.
Replying to a question, the Minister said PIA had to pay fine on account of passengers declared inadmissible at foreign stations, adding that during last five years there were 667 cases in which fine amounting to Rs.71 million imposed on the airline.
He said PIA had taken up such cases with travel agents and due to consistent efforts, the national carrier was able to recover more than Rs.12 million, while vigorous follow up was being made to get the remaining amount.
As per law, Shahbuddin said, the responsibility to detect any forgery in the travel documents mainly remained with Immigration department of the Federal Investigation Agency.
However, whenever, it was established that the passenger had been declared inadmissible due to any error or omission on the part of travel agent or PIA staff, action was always taken and the amount of fine was recovered from the concerned travel agent or PIA staff, he said.
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