KARACHI, Nov 26: Civil Aviation Authority has approached the government to seek from the US government compensation for the continuing losses it has been suffering since mid September.

According to well-placed official sources, the losses suffered by the CAA are of both aeronautical and non-aeronautical nature, amounting to $3.5 million each month.

“Yes we have sought compensation from the US through the federal government,” CAA deputy director-general Air Vice Marshal Arshad Rashid Sethi told Dawn when contacted.

Sources said the federal government had included the CAA amount in the over-all claim of compensation it is seeking from the US to redeem the losses it suffered when it acted as a frontline ally of Washington to help US carry out military operations against Afghanistan.

They said the financial crisis would seriously jeopardize the prospects of many CAA development projects and render some of its smaller airports non-functional.

Sources said that except for a few airports, including Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar, all the other airports had become a non-profit proposition. In the case of the Punjab capital, the profit earned is being spent on the Lahore airport complex project itself, they added.

Therefore, the sources said, such non-profit airports would be subject to scrutiny. The staff would be transferred to other places and the number of such airports which were open more for political compulsions rather than genuine requirements would be scaled down.

Sources said that with the closure of Afghanistan airspace on Sept 14 and later the beginning of US military operations, including the use of warplanes on the landlocked country, the frequency of flights overflying Pakistan airspace, which was 260 before the closure of Kabul airspace, has come down as low as 60 and is continuously decreasing.

The number of about 30 airlines coming to Pakistan also reduced to 14 during the period, seriously affecting the CAA capacity to generate revenue through its landing, housing and embarkation facilities.

The decrease in the outgoing passenger load, mainly because of serious restrictions on issuance of visas for Europe and the West, also affected the business of hotels, stalls, shops at the CAA airports.

Sources said that the operators of restaurants, shops, stalls, etc., had told the CAA that they were not able to make payment of rent in accordance with the agreement owing to gross reduction in their projected income caused by a serious decrease in the number of passengers.