Karachi: Total 61 domestic and 18 international flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to be arrived on Tuesday the airports of the country are facing plausible delays due to a protest campaign of the Air Traffic Controllers.
In addition, this is to result in the loss of about Rs 700 million a week to the national airlines, which is already in the loss of Rs 2bn, while it is also to make other international airlines not to come to Pakistan because of safety hazards.
As per details, more than 250 operational Air Traffic Controllers of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) all over the country went on ‘GO BY THE BOOK’ campaign from Friday and they have stopped going the extra mile to accommodate the traffic for short cuts and expedite the landings and take off on the 23 domestic stations of the country.
Resultantly on Tuesday, total 79 domestic and international flights of PIA faced delays. While international flights of other airlines and domestic operations of Airblue and Shaheen Air also got affected. By dint of this campaign of the Air Traffic Controllers the flights from Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, and Middle East airlines suffered from the loss of some 17920 Nautical Miles per week in terms of track shortening, and only Karachi airport is to lose around 500 nautical miles/per week.
Industry experts informed that a 747 plane consumes 20kg fuel per nautical mile, and the price of that fuel is about $22, while a 737 plane consumes 9kg/NM fuel that has price of $9. Resultantly, total loss on the non-saving of some 17929 nautical miles a week is around Rs 700m, which is a fatal blow to the already broken national airlines.
Besides, this action has resulted in delays to flights all across Pakistan causing inconvenience to passengers and millions of rupees of extra fuel being burnt by the airlines. Total international flights affected on Tuesday of PIA at Karachi airport were 5, Lahore 2, Islamabad 5, Peshawar 5, and Quetta 1.
On domestic front total arrivals of the PIA flights that got affected include 18 flights at Karachi airport, 16 at Lahore airport, 15 at Islamabad airport, 2 at Peshawar airport, 4 at Quetta airport, 2 at Faislabad airport, and 4 at Multan airport.
Sources informed that the traffic controllers have been pushed into this because of the indifferent attitude of the administration of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) towards their issues and problems. This situation has also resulted in a tense working atmosphere for the controllers, which is a serious safety hazard, as already tense controllers are working to handle hundreds of flights from all over the world flying through Pakistan airspace.
Technically this airspace is considered to be one of the most difficult because of presence of high number of conflicting dangerous routes, so just imagine a dissatisfied and frustrated controller sitting on the controls to do this difficult job is a serious safety hazard, sources added.
According to the details, CAA administration about a month back made an agreement with the traffic controllers to immediately implement the immediate relief package of 125% rating allowance (originally it was 250 as approved by 262 CAA executive Committee meeting).
This offer of the CAA was accepted by the controllers to end the ongoing protest at that time, as it was promised to be processed in 15 days. But it has been now more than 40 days and CAA has failed to even discuss this in house, therefore, the traffic controllers lost their interest in the work and went on the said campaign for indefinite period.
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