KARACHI, April 13: The Civil Aviation Authority has initiated a fuel-saving campaign for the national and private airlines. This was stated by CAA director (operations) Nusrat Ullah Khan at a press conference here on Thursday.

The CAA official said the campaign would supplement the fuel-saving strategies pursued by the airlines. “This campaign is based on improved airspace management and has been initially effected on the Karachi-Islamabad-Karachi sector,” he added.

The director for operations noted that before the campaign the airlines used to request for direct routing. “But now the procedures have been changed and air traffic services have been made responsible to effect prior coordination with concerned authorities for the availability of direct routing and offer the same subject to availability to aircraft at the time of start-up”, he added.

He said the difference of normal and direct route to and from Islamabad was about 68 nautical miles and the flying time saving on direct route was about eight minutes.

The CAA official said as a result of fuel saving campaign the PIA saved fuel worth Rs3.464 million, Airblue Rs1.379 million and Aero Asia Rs0.116 million during a period from March 14 to April 10, 2006. “The total saving in flight time by the airlines is about 29.5 hours and this translated into fuel savings of approximately Rs4.940 million”, he said.

He said the increase in fuel prices had had a profound impact on all industries globally. “One of the sectors to have been hit hardest is the aviation industry,” he added.

The CAA director said that with fuel prices touching the US$70 mark, jet fuel prices had correspondingly touched an all-time high. “Airlines and operators alike are facing the brunt of this effect with eroding profit margins and escalating operational costs,” he added.

In response to a question, he said the CAA’s basic aim was to provide safe and expeditious flow of air traffic without compromising safety standards.

To another question, he said the CAA was planning to update the radar equipment and airports.