Pilots vow to extend full support to PIA management

LAHORE - Vice President, Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (PALPA), Capt Suhail Baluch, has said that what happened in recent past was not due to pilots fault, however, pilots do not want to go into blame game as we have sorted out our differences amicably in the larger interest of PIA and would extend full support to the management within the parameters agreed with them.
He expressed these views while addressing at 'Meet The Press programme held at a local hotel on Saturday.
He was of the view that pilots were no more observing 'go-slow and they were confident that the management would also reciprocate.
He said: Even when we were in differences with PIA management, we performed beyond the call of duty. The most precious commodity, for instance, in airlines is fuel that is directly under the control of the pilots. The pilots are paid according to the flight time. The PIA pilots always tried to save fuel by adopting shorter air routes thereby reducing the flight time. Reduction of flight time is a monetary loss for the pilots that they willingly bear in the larger interest of the national carrier.
Baluch said that a Boeing 777 consumes fuel approximately worth Rs 11,000 per minute. A reduction of flight time by 10 minutes means a saving of Rs 1,10,000 on one flight. The last Haj operation was a challenging task for both PIA and its flight crew. The pilots operated these flights so efficiently that the PIA did not have to lease out any plane from outside.
He claimed that PALPA is committed to bring back the lost glory of PIA. The agreement with the PIA management has vindicated its just stand.
On the other hand, according to the investigation of The Nation, PIA management has raised the Pilots Loss of Licence from Rs1.5 million to Rs 10 million and an admin order 14/2009 dated 17 April 2009 has been issued in this regard. The airline management has concluded talks with State Life Insurance. Now any pilot permanently grounded, by Civil Aviation on medical grounds, will be given compensation of Rs1 crore, which will be in addition to normal retirement benefits like pension, provident fund etc. Cash starved PIA will have to pay quite a lump sum of money as premium and the additional impact is in the range of over Rs 150 million per annum.
Currently, there are 28 Boeing 747 captains and 2 co-pilots flying on contract, while there are two captains fly Boeing 777 and one captain is needed to fly A310. The average utilisation per month of Boeing 747 captains in 2008 was 20 hours per month, while the utilisation on Boeing 777 of captains was 43.17 hours. PIA fleet flew a total of 131,359 block hours in 2008, with 265 captains and 241 co-pilots on its payroll. The average utilisation of captains in 2008 was 41.30 hours, while that of co-pilots was 45.42 hours.
PIA has raised the guaranteed payment of Flying Allowance from 50 hours per month to 70 guaranteed flying hours per month. Signing of MoU on April 24 in Ministry of Defence would further enhance the payroll cost by Rs 600 million approximately this year. PIA management issued an Admin Order17/2009 dated 27 April 2009 regarding the raise in Guaranteed Flying Allowance, which it had issued without consent of PALPA. This admin order was withdrawn and replaced with Admin Order 18/2009 on 11 May 2009. This order has also been cancelled and now a final admin order 21/2009 has been issued with pilots consent.