CAA upbeat to pass audit, start pilot licensing by Feb

KARACHI: Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is upbeat on resuming licensing pilots in February next year with the release of an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) audit after a shocking scandal over bogus licences, its top official said on Monday.

“We are hopeful we will resume issuance of licensing following the release of release of the ICAO audit report expected in February,” Khaqan Murtaza, director general of the CAA, told reporters at a news briefing at the authority’s headquarters.

The ICAO, the United Nations Aviation body, had advised Pakistan in September 2020 to carry out prompt corrective action and stop issuing any new pilot licences after bogus licences emerged following the crash of a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft in May that year that resulted in the deaths of 97 passenger and crew.

A nine-member ICAO team carried out an audit in Pakistan for 10 days that concluded on Friday. The last time ICAO had conducted CAA audit was in 2008.

DG CAA said that the ICAO audit team appreciated the progress made by CAA and commended the preparation and hard work prior to the audit.

“We are hopeful of a positive report,” he said adding, “Sanctions will also be lifted after the ICAO audit report is released on February 15”.

Pilots faced sanctions after a statement by a minister that one third of them had dubious or fake licences.

In the wake of the scandal, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) took serious notice of it and discontinued TCO (Third Country Operator) Authorisation for Pakistani carriers.

The USA also downgraded Pakistan to category 2 which means no Pakistan origin aircraft was allowed to enter US territory.

Right after EASA ban, efforts were made to allay their concerns. That meant direct audits from EASA and indirect adherence to safety standards for all other affiliated agencies such as IATA (International Air Transport Association), Department of Transport UK etc, which were later cleared. Then they put forth a condition that CAA was not compliant to ICAO standards, highlighted by ICAO since November 2020 on pilots licencing and other regulatory issues.

If CAA clears its audit and is compliant by 80 percent, the same would be put up to EASA again that will take a final decision on whether to lift the restrictions, according to officials privy to matters.

DG CAA further said there were many restrictions due to lack of audit. The audit was carried out in six areas – airworthiness, flying standards, personal licensing and examination, air navigation services, aerodromes and aircraft accident.

The main issue in the audit was the pilot's licence issue. Murtaza said the federal cabinet had approved establishing British licencing system and CAA would start issuing licences after the final report of ICAO.

To a query, the DG said land grabbing mafias had inflicted damages worth billions of rupees to CAA, adding, the grabbers forged documents and even moved courts against CAA. He claimed that CAA had recovered Rs25 billion worth of land.

Murtaza commended Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) efforts in bringing corrupt CAA officials and land grabbers to book despite extreme pressure.

According to the Auditor General’s (AG) audit report for the financial year 2019-20, there were Rs300 billion worth of irregularities in CAA and nearly half of the amount was attributed to illegal encroachment of the CAA’s land.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has also ordered CAA to stop commercial activities on its land. Murtaza said they have stopped commercial activity but the laws allow CAA to earn through non-aeronautical means.

“It is a global practice that aviation authority earns through non-aeronautical means as well,” he said adding, “But the point is that the earned money should go directly to CAA and not to individuals and 40 percent of the income for an aviation authority can come through non-aeronautical means”.

Talking about the airlines, DG CAA said there was a price war among airlines in the past when ticket rates fell to as low as Rs4,500 for Karachi to Islamabad flights. After that, airlines requested CAA to put a lower cap for tickets so that there was no price tussle, Murtaza added.

“But I said if there’s a lower cap then there should also be an upper cap for tickets,” said Murtaza and added that the National Aviation Policy would introduce some new things.