Sub-committee of the Parliamentary Body on Defence is secretly probing into the alleged involvement of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in granting undue relaxations in landing charges to non-scheduled flight operations of foreigners’ aircrafts from the Gulf States and certain big-guns of the country at the Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur and Sialkot airports, Pakistan Today learnt on Wednesday.
The case was also discussed in an in-camera meeting of the Sub-committee of National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence which was held in the Parliament House a few weeks ago in which committee members expressed serious reservations on discrepancies in levying charges on parking of aircrafts of royal figures of Gulf States at Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur airports. A source in the parliamentary body told Pakistan Today that the committee was presented with a record of non-scheduled operations (international) from July 2010 to June 2011 at the Rahim Yar Khan Airport in which it was found that certain flights of the Royal Jet Company were not being charged parking levy.
He said Royal Jet’s aircrafts B-737, B-738, G-IV and L-160 made 11 flights between July 2010 and June 2011, paying landing charges of $5,055. He said the CAA officials had no record of the time the aircrafts’ had spent at the airport as the law stated that any aircraft staying at the airport for over six hours would have to pay parking charges. When contacted, convenor sub-committee MNA Talib Nakai confirmed that the parliamentary body had expressed reservations over the anomalies in levying various charges on non-schedule flight operations at Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur and Sialkot airports.
According to the available record, around 27 non-scheduled (international) flights of eight companies operated from July 2010 to June 2011 at Rahim Yar Khan Airport while 99 non-scheduled (domestic) flights of seven companies operated at the same airport in the same span of time. Companies undergoing non-scheduled operation (international) include Air Almaty, Cham Wing Air, East Sky Jet Dubai, East Wing Air, Maximus Air Cargo, Royal Jet, Turkmenistan Air, V-Berd Avia Sharja and companies whose aircrafts have made non-scheduled (domestic) flights include Air One (Pvt) Ltd, Aircraft Sales and Services, Hybrid Technics, JDW Aviation, J.S. Air (Pvt) Ltd, Pak Aviation and Aviators and Princely Jet (Pvt) Ltd. Records show that 22 international flights and all 99 domestic non-scheduled flights did not pay the parking charges.
Record also revealed that aircrafts L-100, RJ-85, B-737 and G-4 of Dubai Air Wing made 10 flights at the Bahawalpur Airport from July 2010 to June 2011, paying landing charges of $5,560 but they too did not pay the parking charges. Furthermore, 16 domestic non-schedule flights operating from the Bahawalpur Airport of companies including JDW Aviation, King Crete Associate, Pak Aviation and Aviators and Princely Jet (Pvt) did pay the parking charges. CAA spokesman Pervez George said the authority had always levied charges on flight operations either scheduled or non-scheduled under existing laws and there no relaxation had been granted to anyone except those who were exempted under the law.