RAWALPINDI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) engineering department at the Islamabad airport has successfully overhauled Boeing 777 as the aircraft completed its recommended flying hours on Thursday.

This was the first aircraft which underwent overhauling after up-gradation of engineering facility at the Islamabad International Airport (IIA).

Earlier, Karachi was the only station approved by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to carry out maintenance checks of all types and aircraft had to be flown to Karachi. However, in August 2019 Lahore base was upgraded followed by Islamabad for the Boeing 777s A checks.

With the upgradation of engineering facility at IIA, the airline would not only be able to save money but avoid disturbance of flight schedule.

“On October 10, PIA Engineering setup at Islamabad successfully completed Check-A on Boeing 777 (AP-BHX) after completing recommended flying hours (75 days or 1,000 flying hours),” said PIA spokesperson Mashhood Tajwar.

He said the Islamabad Engineering Department is now fully capable of performing B777 aircraft ‘A’ checks indigenously after being approved from Civil Aviation Authority.

The spokesperson said the PIA’s Boeing 777 aircraft will now be overhauled at Islamabad airport also thus making tremendous savings.

He termed it another big achievement after enhancement of technical capability at Islamabad for A 320s. The engineering base has now been enabled to cater to the needs of B777s. The Check-A of Boeing 777, included overhauling, cleaning and inspection of other parts.

PIA Chief Executive Officer Air Marshal Arshad Malik said it was a major step towards self-reliance of PIA Engineering.

He said this would help not only in reducing expenses, save ground maintenance time, improve flight punctuality but earn extra revenue for PIA by providing services to other airlines.

PIA has 12 Boeing 777 in its fleet and all of them are airworthy, the PIA spokesperson said.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2019