EU To Ban Most Pakistan Airlines Planes
February 23, 2007

The European Union is set to ban most of Pakistan International Airlines' (PIA) fleet from flying to the 27 country bloc because of safety concerns, an EU source said on Friday.

The source said a committee of experts had decided to block all but seven planes of the airline's roughly 40 aircraft fleet from flying to Europe for failing to meet international safety standards.

"Only those seven will be allowed to make flights to European Union countries," the source said. "The rest of the fleet will be blacklisted."

State-run PIA declined to comment.

"We cannot comment on this until we receive an official communication from the EU," a PIA spokesman said in Karachi.

The decision is likely to come into force in about 10 days, the EU source said, once it is made official by the executive European Commission.

The source said the decision could cause disruptions to passengers because the airline had flight connections to Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands.

A Pakistani diplomat in Brussels said the airline was working to address the EU's concerns, which focused on maintenance problems and old aircraft.

"It is for the airline to take steps to alleviate the situation and they are already doing that," the diplomat said.

"I think there is a great effort by PIA and also by the European officials that passengers should not suffer too much from this," he said.

Last year the Commission banned nearly 100 airlines from operating in the bloc, targeting mostly African carriers after a spate of fatal crashes involving European passengers.

In addition, Bulgaria, which joined the EU in January, has suspended five carriers from flying to the rest of the bloc as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland until the companies achieve necessary safety standards.

Those carriers are Air Sofia, Bright Aviation Services, Heli Air Services, Skorpion Air and Vega Airlines.

The carriers are not being placed on the EU blacklist.

"The Aviation Safety Committee has expressed its satisfaction from Bulgaria's measures, due to which there are no Bulgarian airline companies included in the blacklist," the Bulgarian transport ministry said in a statement.

(Reuters)
http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1172265885.html





EU set to ban most PIA flights due to safety fears

Reuters


Brussels: The European Union is set to ban most of Pakistan International Airlines' fleet from flying to the 27-country bloc because of safety concerns, an EU source said yesterday.

The source said a committee of experts had decided to block all but seven planes of the airline's 40-plane fleet from flying to Europe for failing to meet international safety standards. "Only those seven will be allowed to make flights to European Union countries," the source said. "The rest of the fleet will be blacklisted."

The decision is likely to come into force in about 10 days, the source said, once made official by the European Commission.

Disruption

He said the decision could cause disruptions to passengers because the airline had flight connections to Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands.

Last year the Commission banned nearly 100 airlines from operating in the bloc, targeting mostly African carriers after a spate of fatal crashes involving European passengers.

http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Belgium/10106654.html


NOT very good news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is strange. Previously the EU only had a problem with the older 747's, 2 of which were allowed to fly in the UK again.

this could be politically motivated decision.

not everything is politically motivated

Great, whats next.

They want us to install the Advance Collision Warning Devices or Aircraft Proximity Warning Device (APD), and other fail-safe devices including Terrain Anti-Collision (which is already installed). Along with that they have demanded that our pilots also go through The Technically Advanced Aircraft Safety and Training.

In the US it's known as TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System), and the proportion of the aircrafts in 2001 in the US which did not have TCAS was 93%. Today each and every US registered jet has it.

It is a good thing, we should implement it as well.

Some PIA 747's had been allowed back, were there continuing incidents with them? What about the A310's?

The 747's which we had leased from Cathay Pacific were in question. The 310's we acquired later have em, I'm not so sure about the 310's which we got like 15 years ago.

We need a Shaukat Aziz for PIA.

I think we should indeed implement the safety-related concerns. AT THE END OF THE DAY, IT WOULD BE PIA AND ITS PASSENGERS WHO WILL BENEFIT!

I am so glad that this ban took place. Atleast now PIA will take action and change its agening fleet.
I am norwegian-pakistani, born in Norway. I like rest of travellers between Scandenavia and Pakistan is fed up with PIA' bad service and old planes. recently, PIA has puted in smaller planes in this routes which has caused alot of problems for travellers to Pakistan. One never get ticket, its always full booked.

PIA ticket between Oslo and Lahore cost in off season 7600 nok, which is 950 euro in todays currency rate. 1 euro: 8 Norwegian Krones.

After paying so much one gets bad service(old food). In my oppinion PIA should drop food in the flights and reduced ticket prices. Readers of mu article should compare prices between Europe-New York and Europe-Lahoe, which is almost the same distance. Why can european flights manage so low prices to a longer distance accross altantic ocean, while PIA have so high fares on comparatibly shorter distance ????

With the latest developments i hope PIA will put a boing 777 on Scandinavia route and throw these old 747 now. PIA can afford it. According to my experience if one invest in something, property etc etc, self if one byies on loan, one start making property. But if one get big flow of cash in account its danger for over using money. So buying new 777 on Europe routes will not heart PIA economy that much. PIA have after all regular travlers on Europe route. According to my oppinion its so many pakistanies in Europe, listed in the list:

-About 1 million people of pak origion in U.K only
- Ireland ??????
- Switzerland???
- Austria????
- Chech rep???
- Slovakia???
- Poland????

- Finland???? This bastard country deported pakistanies which came to Finland in 1970's, by sending them back in charter planes back to Pakistan from Finland, peoples from Pakistan left Pakistan for jobs to many European country, and most of the European countries gave pak peopel stay, but specially Finland deported those pakistanies, a big rasist country-

- 35000 pakistani in Norway
- 30000 pakistani in Denmark
- 2000-4000 pakistani in Sweden
- 50000 pakistani in Spain
- 10000 pakistani in Holland
- 10000 pakistani in France
- 20000 pakistani in Italy
- 10000 pakistani in Greece
- 2000 pakistani in Portugal
- 30000 pakistani in Germany
- For th rest of Europe the figure is ????
-------------------------------------------------------

Very roughly its around 1,2 million people of pakistani origin in Europe if nopt more, and the figure is increasing, excuse me if figure for some country is wrong, i appritiace if readers feedback so i get the right figure.

PIA shuld be privatised at the earliest opportunity and i think the government of Pakistan has decided to do that but not just yet because they want a good price for it. It needs to be in profit for a few years before overseas investors will consider buying it out.

Tore,


by the way i know for sure your figure on sweden is wrong. there are around 50,000 Pakistanis in Sweden.

so tell me again, why did the Finnish governement deport Pakistanis?

air bus 310's are on Tokyo-Bejing-ISL-KCH route sorry to say but its really dummy .and i also want to call it PIA TANGA.hope its get banned tooa nd we get some new jets for this route only 2 flights in week and its miserable too.most people are going now with Emirates/Thai air. but families have to stick with PIA but thier services are still miserable dunno what and where is wrong with PIA .staff is more than.........my cousin really had BAD memories with PIA crew is funny and really sad .
lets see what will be fate of PIA in EU .

PIA need to privatise,in high season very hard to get a ticket,on other hand 30% to 40% planes are empty.that,s why most of pakistani prefer to trevel in other air lines,freind from norway says that in italy 20000 pakistani living not corect they are more then 50,000

PIA deserves to be prodded, not banned. Those folks who talk about "new jets" should wonder where PIA is going to get the cash.

Salam bhai

I think you have misunderstood, its noway 50000 pak in Sweden. I live in Norway, just 100 km from Swedens border and am often i Sweden, there are maximum 4000-5000 pak there. But in Denmark its 30000-35000 people of pak origin like the figure in Norway og 35000 pak origin people.


If u dont belive me, you can check out with the pakistani embassy in Sweden for instance or by contacting any other insitution, by the way where did you get this figure from ?

The problem with privitization is that many of the "welfare" routes that are currently run at a loss would be cut and that would leave remote locations isolated. I think that with competent management of foreign extraction (some smart expats with credentials), PIA can work as well as other state owned airlines like Emirates, Gulf Air and JAL.

Musharraf may talk to EU leaders on PIA



KARACHI: President Gen Pervez Musharraf is expected to talk directly to European leaders if the European Union bans Pakistan International Airline’s fleet from operating in the bloc.

“Musharraf and the prime minister will be required to speak to at least some key EU leaders if the airline’s efforts fail to yield results,” sources told Daily Times on Saturday. They said the airline would send a letter to the EU Air Safety Committee to ask it to clarify whether such a decision had been made. About the response to contacts the management had made following a report that claimed all but seven aircraft of the PIA fleet would be banned, they said attempts for this purpose had been fruitless, “as Saturdays and Sundays are not working days in West”.

Asked what possibly could have prompted the decision to ban all but seven aircraft, the sources said this could be a ploy to pressure Pakistan into buying European planes. They said the decision to allow only the Boeings might have been made as challenging an American product would have landed the EU in trouble. They said the EU was also possibly looking at minimising the PIA fleet’s presence because of a recent surge in terrorism in Pakistan..



http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...25-2-2007_pg1_3

The age of the planes are being used as an excuse by the PIA for the ban. However this is not the matter. The main problem is that the PIA planes are not being properly maintained.

In several European airlines there are planes that are more than 25 years old. However they are properly maintained. Hence there is no safety issue. This is the case for most of the MD80 planes in operation. The only reason that these planes are being replaced by forinstance A320 and A319 is that they are most fuelefficient than the old MD80.

PIA fleet will not be banned from flying to EU: CAA


LAHORE: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said on Saturday that no ban would be imposed on the Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) fleet in the European Union, and the airline’s aircraft would continue operating in the bloc after March 8.

Replying to a question about international organisations’ objections to PIA Boeings and air buses and the CAA stance on the subject, CAA Deputy Director General Vice Marshal Muhammad Safdar Khan said the CAA was satisfied with the PIA Boeings and air buses.

He was talking Daily Times after a conference of regional countries’ civil aviation associations in Lahore. He said the CAA believed that PIA’s international fleet was okay for operations. He said the authority was aware of the whole situation, and he attended a meeting in Brussels of the EU Air Safety Commission on February 22, where a PIA and CAA team made a successful presenatation.

He said the fleet’s operations in the bloc would continue after March 8, but certain quarters were trying to exploit the situation.

“I especially went to attend that meeting after the rising controversy on the issue,” he said. He conceded that the PIA fleet had some “small operational or technical faults”, but said the CAA knew about these problems, and the situation was being improved. “The CAA has occasionally stopped some aircraft from flying, but that happens only for two to three days because of technical problems.”

The CCA deputy director general said EU countries had been contacted to tell them that they should first consult the CAA on such issues.

According to reports on Friday, senior officials at the Pakistan High Commission in London told the PIA headquarters in Karachi that the EU would bar all PIA aircraft, except for Boeing 777s, from flying in the bloc after March 8 because of safety concerns. The reports said the decision was made in Brussels, where the Air Safety Commission’s meeting was held.


http://www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/Feb07/25/12.htm

Omar, merey Bhai, no offense, but the effect has already began to take shape.
http://dawn.com/2007/02/28/nat3.htm

Restrictions force PIA to suspend Frankfurt flight

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Germany on Tuesday asked Pakistan International Airlines to stop flying most of its aircraft to German Airports, almost a week before the European Union takes a final decision about a ban being contemplated by the EU on the airline.

German authorities have asked PIA management to operate only Boeing 777 aircraft in and out of Germany, the airline’s spokesman confirmed on Tuesday.

PIA, which operates two flights to Frankfurt from Islamabad and one each from Peshawar and Lahore using A-310 carriers, appears to have been caught unprepared.

PK 761, which was to fly from Islamabad to Frankfurt on Tuesday was instead flown to Istanbul after the German decision and passengers were transferred to another airline for carrying them onwards to Frankfurt.

The EU plans to ban all but seven aircraft in PIA fleet because of safety concern, with the recently acquired Boeing 777s escaping the restrictions.

PIA had been on EU watch-list since September 2006, which had asked the airline to undertake a remedial plan for addressing the systemic safety deficiencies within the given deadline.

An EU delegation led by Federico Grandini, European Commission’s Air Safety Administrator, had visited Pakistan earlier this month to assess the remedial measures and had spoken to both Civil Aviation Authority and PIA on the issue. The meeting was followed by CAA and PIA officials visit to Brussels, but failed to convince the EU officials.

The basic objections of EU pertain to absence of a proper quality control system in the airline and its failure to rectify the faults that had been identified earlier.

Mr Grandini had told Dawn from Brussels that the findings had been sent to the commission which will take a formal decision only after consultation of the European Parliament in about 10 days.

However, the German authorities imposed the restrictions much earlier than a final decision by the EU. No explanations have been given by German authorities.

I hope something is done about the planes not just for the sake of PIA but for all the people who fly on the carrier. I for one will not be flying with them until I see concrete measures taking shape to meet current safety legislation.

why would pakistanis wanna go to that freezer.