RAWALPINDI: The Can­adian Transport Authority has declared that Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA)operational services meet international standards and hopes that the airline will maintain the efficiency of flight operations.

The Transport Canada Safety Validation and Airworthiness Desk of the Canadian Transport Auth­ority released the audit report on PIA’s safety.

The authority had conducted an audit of PIA in August 2020 after the European Union imposed a ban on Pakistan.

In a letter to PIA CEO Air Marshal Arshad Malik, Transport Canada said: “Transport Canada accepts that PIA has implemented the corrective actions to address the findings generated by the Transport Canada Foreign Operations Division Airworthiness Audit Specific ICAO Air­worthiness Elem­ents on August 26, 2020.

“Accordingly, all of the airworthiness findings are closed. We also recognise that other long-term systematic changes have been implemented both in flight and airworthiness operations over the past years to enhance safety in PIA.”

“Transport Canada will continue to carry out surveillance and oversight acti­vities of PIA operations in Canada which will allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of the long-term corrective action plan,” the audit report said.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2021