PIA-Palpa standoff

Once living up to its slogan 'Great People to Fly With', over time, PIA has been going down in public estimation for poor maintenance of its fleet and frequent flight delays amid stories of deep financial trouble. The latest problem came when the Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association (Palpa) went on a go-slow strike to press for its demands, resulting in the cancellation of a very large number of flights. This has been happening at a time the Hajis have started returning from Saudi Arabia. The national carrier needed to operate extra flights to bring them home without causing disruptions on regular routes. Instead it is causing unnecessary difficulties for all categories of air travellers. According to some media reports, because of PIA flights' cancellation private carries are exploiting passengers, in some instances charging double the fare on domestic routes.
Speaking at a press conference, PIA Chairman, Nasser N. Jaffer, complained about the pilots calling in sick at the last moment, resulting in flight cancellations. Palpa, on the other hand, said it had asked its members only to "go by the book". Blaming the crisis on what the association called inefficiency of the management it claimed the flights could still be operated with proper planning, such as assigning flight duties to two sets of crew rather than one. The blame-game aside, it is unclear what exactly is at issue. Strange as it sounds, the PIA Chairman said he did not know why the pilots had resorted to such behaviour, asking them to discuss their grievances with the management during the ongoing negotiations about working conditions and salaries. The statement suggests that aside from the usual pay raise demand in such situations - according to the PIA chief, the airlines is spending about Rs 3.2 billion annually on the pilots salaries and perks, but they want double of that amount - administrative issues are also a cause of dispute.
Given the dire financial straits the airlines is in, the demand for such a huge pay raise, whatever its comparative merit, seems quite unrealistic. However, there should be no problem in addressing some of the other demands such as rationalising duty timings, training, and job security issues, which in fact have a vital role in enhancing efficiency as also passenger safety. Not long ago when a private jet went down in Islamabad, the pilot was said to be disoriented due to having put in extra long duty hours. In any event, both the management and the pilots' representatives need to think about the hardships the go-slow is causing to passengers and sit together to resolve the issues of contention between them. Flight safety and efficiency must take priority over everything else.