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KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airline director (flight operations) has handed in his resignation amid the ongoing tug of war between PIA management and pilots’ association, citing interference by the latter in the affairs of his department, it emerged on Saturday.
However, the pilots’ association chief refuted the views and said the director of flight operations (DFO) was trying to hide his own failures and cover up incompetence of his team.
The management, meanwhile, has requested the DFO to continue with the work, as he manages the entire flight operations which is the backbone of organisation.
In his June 30 communication relating to the resignation to the PIA chairman, DFO Capt Qasim Hayat had said: “Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (PALPA) president has verbally instructed me to remove my team members (chief pilots) and the new nominees shall be intimated by him.
“You would agree, sir, that it is not possible to function as director flight operations with continuous intervention of PALPA which has now reached to a magnitude where PALPA president is directing terms to the extent of appointing the flight operations functionaries.
“In view of the foregoing it has now become impossible to function, and I hereby tender my resignation from the position of director flight operations .. I may be reverted back to flying duties.”
Responding to Dawn queries, PALPA president Amir Hashmi denied that he was interfering in DFO’s work and said it was a lame excuse by the DFO to hide his failures to cover up the incompetence of his team.
He said that the flight operations management did not listen to the feedback given by the highly professional PALPA team. Citing an example, he said that a newly leased Airbus 320 parked in the hanger remained unproductive just because of non-availability of trained crew to fly the plane though PIA claimed that club class seats were being fixed in the plane which had been removed apparently to buy time to train pilots on Airbus 320.
He said that the PALPA team asked for fleet plan over and over again so that training of pilots in small groups could be planned but flight operations bigwigs insisted on training of all the 42 pilots at the same time, with the result that only one set of pilots was available to ferry the aircraft from China when more were required.
“The surprise grounding of Boeing 737 aircraft further compounded the woes of the flight crew, as 16 other sets of pilots were compelled to remain grounded for an indefinite period. Only if PALPA knew of this grounding, the pilots could have been sent on A320 aircraft and the senior pilots, who were already flying the wide-body A310s, would not have been given an option to fly smaller aircraft,” said PALPA chief.
Mr Hashmi said that a pilot’s primary job was to fly an aircraft but unfortunately getting and clinging on management assignments had become lucrative due to huge disparity between salaries of a pilot flying an aircraft and a pilot holding management position.
He said that some PALPA office-bearers had also been given management pilots’ allowances and he tried to reason out with the flight operations management to rationalise the allowances to reduce disparity, but the flight operations management did not agree.
The sources said that pilots got flight allowance (which makes a major chunk of pilot’s salary) for guaranteed 50-hour flying, while the pilots holding management positions were given allowances for 105 hours.
The previous PALPA representatives managed to arm twist the management and got the allowances of 105 flying hours for its office-bearers too though the move was resisted / disliked by many pilots, the sources said. During the elections a few months ago, Mr Hashmi’s group (then in the opposition) had exploited this point and won seats against the group that had obtained allowances of 105 flying hours for it.
Responding to Dawn queries, PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar confirmed that DFO Qasim Hayat had resigned. But he was quick to add that the issue had been sorted out. The management did not accept his resignation and he had been asked to continue with his assignment, Mr Tajwar added.
The sources said that the PALPA-led PIA workers’ movement had gained influence in the airline affairs over the past couple of years since the time when the government had been compelled to remove its managing director.
The influence they wielded could be gauged from the fact that a former PALPA official who had been demoted by the Civil Aviation Authority over some issue had his punishment reduced and got the coveted post of the chief pilot in PIA. While he was later removed in another case after a hue and cry was raised, a former PALPA official was given the position of general manager even though he was not a graduate which was one of the basic requirements for the appointment, the sources added.
Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2014
