Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) has made mandatory for all three air operators (PIA, AirBlue and SereneAir) to operate 5 percent of its total available seat capacity on socio-economic routes in order to promote domestic tourism. The directives were issued during 2nd Meeting of Aviation Oversight Committee presided by Secretary Aviation/DGCAA Shahrukh Nusrat at PCAA headquarters on the other day.
DG PCAA said that under the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan, all scheduled air carriers shall now be required to operate 5 percent of their total capacity - available seat kilometres (ASKs) on socio-economic routes in order to promote domestic tourism.
"In case of non-compliance on aforesaid directives, the Regular Public Transport (RPT)/airline, which are not operating on the primary and socio-economic routes, shall compensate the airline's losses if any, operating on these routes", he added. Furthermore, he said that PCAA 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 said that all the CAA regulations had 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.
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 PCAA after due deliberation on case to case basis.
Shahrukh further said that as per directions of Prime Minister of Pakistan, all airlines that were operating to or from Pakistan were 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 added. In addition, secretary aviation assured the participants of the meeting that the issues being faced by them for importing spare-parts/engines for aircraft, due to SBP policy to be resolved with SBP officials. He also promised to hold an exclusive meeting to discuss issues related to flying schools and clubs on September 16, 2019 at Islamabad. A large number of stakeholders attended the meeting.