LAHORE: The Dubai International Airport authorities have issued back to back warnings to the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) over its failure to adhere to time slot allocated to it and the practice of changing aircraft without intimation.

The airport authorities told the PIA in a letter that it was not observing the time slot. “It has failed to follow the correct procedure to update slots. This is deemed as misuse of the slots. We are adopting zero tolerance to such misuse,” it said.

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The authorities said the letter should be considered a second warning. “If any further violation of this nature occurs, a fine may be imposed on the PIA.”

A source in the PIA said that delay in its flights often caused problems with regard to observing the time. “This issue is not only related to Dubai but also to several European airports. Jeddah airport is another place where time slot issue crops up every now and then,” he said.

The national-flag carrier was facing the problem primarily because of shortage of planes, he said. “Unless the PIA gets more planes, this issue will not be solved.”

Before issuing the warning on the time slot misuse, the Dubai airport authorities have warned the PIA to inform it before any change of aircraft scheduled to land there.

“On several occasions, the PIA did not bother to inform the airport authorities about the change of aircraft,” the source said. He attributed this to lack of proper communication among different departments of the PIA.

PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar told Dawn that a reply had been sent to the Dubai airport authorities and claimed that both issues had been resolved.

Meanwhile, the PIA has started operating its 30 flights to Dubai after completion of extension of its airport. The PIA had been diverting most of its Dubai-bound flights to Sharjah over the past two months because of extension work of the airport.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd , 2014