KARACHI, Oct 4: The management of PIA has notified the policy and procedure for regulating the General Declaration (GD) travel of cockpit crew, airline sources revealed.

As per the policy adopted in this regard, the international GD travel of cockpit crew has been discontinued and will only be authorized on domestic routes by the director, flight operations, in respect of cockpit crew whose families are residing outside their place of posting on the merit of each case.

This will be an interim arrangement until further review, PIA management sources said. According to a PIA notification, the following procedure shall govern the GD travel of cockpit crew with immediate effect:

i) GD travel shall be undertaken in the cockpit in full uniform, against prescribed GD forms duly approved by the competent authority.

ii) The GD travel form shall be filled-in duplicate, a copy of which shall be retained by the admin manager, flight operations, for records.

iii) The lists of cockpit crew based at stations and families of cockpit crew residing outside their place of posting shall be maintained by the admin manager, flight ops.

iv) A consolidated monthly report regarding GD travel undertaken by cockpit crew shall be submitted to the managing director and chairman PIAC by the director, flight ops through the director administration.

v) The director flight ops and director administration will ensure that the GD travel facility is not being misused.

Meanwhile, all GD cards issued to cockpit crew stand withdrawn, and are no more valid, according to the official communication which said this policy shall also be applicable to contractual cockpit crew.

OUTSTATION ALLOWANCE: PIA management has decided to revise the outstation allowance of its cabin crew for international flights from $3 to $3.45 per hour. According to PIA sources, all other conditions for payment of this allowance will remain unchanged.—APP