RAWALPINDI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has decided to hire pilots for ATR planes to meet a shortage and save training cost.

The decision to divide the PIA into six divisions and hire the pilots was taken at a meeting of the board of directors in Islamabad on Thurs­day. The meeting was presided over by PIA Chairman Muhammad Irfan Elahi.

The airline will have divisions for flight operations, commercial services, technical and planning, human resource and administration, and finance.

Other departments, including safety and quality, information technology and security and vigilance, will work directly under the chief operating officer and legal and internal audit under the chief executive officer.

A plan to expand the IT department was approved.

The pilots for ATR planes will be hired on a contract.

The tenure of pilots associated with airline is a year, after which they have to undergo training for Airbus A-320 and the PIA has to bear double training cost. The new contracts will be valid till the limit of their licence.

The board also approved ad hoc relief allowance of 16.5 per cent of last year’s salary for pilots.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2016