PIA ends row with pilots

KARACHI-The reviewed order, which was demanded by Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (PALPA), was announced on Wednesday by PIA management, The Nation learnt from sources.
The PALPA delegation led by General Manager PALPA, Suhail Baloch alongwith Arif Majeed and other executive members of PALPA met the Director Flight operations, Capt. Shuja Naqvi, General Manager Central Control, Capt. Saleem Ahmed and General Manager Scheduling, Capt. Haroon Abdullah.
After this meeting, the members of PALPA met MD PIA, Capt. Aijaz Haroon.
During these meetings, the management of PIA and PALPA discussed the issues existing between the two parties for last few weeks.
The demand of PALPA for new admin order has been accepted and the order has been issued.
The previous admin order was rejected by PALPA as it was issued unilaterally by the airline.
'The pilots have assured the management for their full cooperation and support for bringing the airline out of financial crisis.
PALPA has announced that they will take their scheduled flights without any interruption.
It was also discussed that the working agreement would be reviewed on July 31st 2009.It will be implemented when it is agreed, said the source.
Now, the Airline has resumed its normal flight schedule and PIA is in full coordination with PALPA since last Saturday to resolve this issue.
It is worth mentioning here that since last Saturday 25 domestic and international flights were being disturbed while some flights had been cancelled due to go slow strategy of pilots.
This created huge distress among the passengers of the airline as they had to wait long for their flights and in some cases to go home because of cancellation of flights.
It may be recalled here that earlier PALPAs go-slow tactics during April 17-23 caused financial loss of Rs 660 million to the airline.
Later, with the intervention of Ministry of Defence it was agreed between PALPA and PIA management that they would call off their strike and their demands presented earlier would be reviewed on July 31, 2009.