ISLAMABAD: The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) retained a 2020 suspension of the authorisation for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to operate in Europe.
The agency had placed the ban on the national airline, initially for a period of six months, in June 2020 in a move following the grounding of 262 pilots after they were suspected of cheating on mandatory licence tests.
Earlier this month, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) gave the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) the all-clear in terms of resolving significant safety concerns.
The ICAO “has withdrawn its objection on significant safety concerns,” PCAA spokesman Saifullah Khan said at the time.
Following the development, the airline said it expected to restart Europe operations in February or March.
However, the agency, in its response to a letter of PIA, said while it was pleased to hear that ICAO was able to remove the Significant Safety Concern (SSC) raised against Pakistan Personnel Licensing (PEL) following the on-site Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program (USOAP) activities performed from November 29 to December 10, the decision does not affect the EASA ban on the flights as it still needs to evaluate the performance of PCAA.
“The closure of this SSC was an important step towards a potential lifting of the suspension of PIA Third Country Operators (TCO) Authorization (TCOA),” it said.
But the decision about lifting the ban will be taken after the evaluation report of the European agency.
