RAWALPINDI: The International Air Transport Association’s Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) team is arriving on Saturday (today) to conduct audit of PIA’s various departments.

The team will begin its operational safety audit on Sept 7, focusing on various departments of PIA, including flight operation, safety and security, passenger service and engineering.

It will be visiting Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Multan airports for the purpose.

In view of the upcoming audit, the airlines’ chief executive officer (CEO), retired Air Marshal Arshad Malik, inspected the operational installations, and briefed the heads of engineering, ramp service and flight safety departments.

Experts will visit country’s main airports, conduct audit of PIA’s various departments

The PIA spokesman, Abdullah Hafeez Khan, said Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan had directed that all inoperable aircraft and equipment on ramps be removed. At this, retired Air Marshal Arshad Malik asked the Civil Aviation Authority officials to comply with the orders.

After the inoperable aircraft and equipment are removed, the vacant space will be used for parking and repair of aircraft, the spokesman said, adding that the PIA CEO had expressed his satisfaction over the preparations.

The operational safety audit is carried out every two years, with the last audit being conducted in 2018.

The audit programme was designed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2003 to assess operational management and control systems of the airlines.

The PIA has decided not to lodge an appeal against the European Union (EU) Aviation Safety Agency’s suspension of its flights to and from EU-member states.

The decision has been taken in the wake of a scheduled visit of International Air Transport Association’s designated IOSA team, which was to visit Pakistan in September to assess the operational management and control systems of PIA.

Earlier, on June 30, 2020, EASA had written a letter to PIA that apart from the pending issue of implementing safety management tools in PIA flight operation within the stipulated time, it had suspended authorisation of PIA flights to and from EU-member countries for six months, effective from July 1, 2020.

IATA had expressed concern over the ‘serious lapse in the licensing and safety oversight by the aviation regulator’.

Besides, IATA, EASA had also expressed its concern after PIA flight PK-8303 crashed in Karachi on May 22, followed by Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan’s disclosure in the parliament on June 24 that licences of 262 of the 850 pilots were suspicious.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2020