KARACHI, Nov 12: A PIA spokesman said on Tuesday that the national flag carrier achieved a remarkable turnaround in only 18 months due to the implementation of its business plan, which envisaged a number of remedial measures.

The spokesman said that to achieve these near-impossible results in record time and in the face of challenges, exaggerated by the 9/11 events, the PIA management had to adopt certain stringent measures in the larger interest of the airline and its employees.

He said the restructuring of operations, radical cost-cutting measures and closing down of non-profiting stations were some of the steps taken by the airlines worldwide and Lufthansa, one of the frontline airlines of the world, was a prime example here.

The PIA, too, he said, had to adopt certain measures to achieve the required results.

Unfortunately, he continued, a certain segment of the press had lately alleged that the PIA had violated international rules by increasing the duty hours of the cabin crew and cutting down on their rest hours, resulting in fatigue and exhaustion of crew members.

The spokesman said the plea was totally unjust and incorrect and made it clear that the rules related to duty-hours/rest-duties/responsibilities of the cockpit crew, the flying duty-hours and rest period accorded to cockpit crew was ascertained and evaluated on a different level altogether than that applicable to the cabin crew.

This is not a local feature, exercised by the PIA alone. It was a recognized worldwide fact and consequently appropriately implemented by the global airlines, he said.

He said most of the foreign carriers had a maximum duty time of 19 hours for cabin crew, whereas PIA had adopted a cycle of 12 hours, extendible to 14 hours, for which extra payment was made to the cabin crew as over-time at the rate of double the flying allowance.

In case of delayed flights (exceeding 16-1/2 hors) the cabin crew was paid an additional amount of Rs3,000 per crew member, he explained.—APP