The cash-strapped national flag carrier may not have any parallel in spending, as on the one hand, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is continuously trying to seek a bailout package from the federal government, while on the other hand it is paying 70-hour guaranteed flying allowance at 1.5 times of hourly allowance to management executive pilots, Pakistan Today has learnt. According to sources, PIA, which was facing serious embarrassment abroad as vendors have refused fuel supply to aircrafts due to non-payment of outstanding bills, is paying around Rs 120 million per annum to management executive pilots on account of flying allowance at 1.5 times of the actual rate.
Talking to Pakistan Today, they said that during the tenure of former PIA managing director Captain Aijaz Haroon, Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (PALPA) and the PIA management inked an agreement–PALPA-PIAC Working Agreement 2009-11–that entitled 70-hour guaranteed flying allowance at the rate of one-and-a-half of the hourly flying allowance, irrespective of the actual number of hours flown. In 2011, PALPA and PIA management revisited the agreement and decided to reduce the guaranteed flying hours from 70 to 50 hours at double rate of hourly flying allowance irrespective of the actual number of hours flown. But despite serious financial constraints, the PIA management was still not implementing the revised agreement, they maintained. They disclosed that PALPA representatives had already asked the management, through a letter (Ref: PALPA/G/06/677 Dated: December 04, 2011), to enforce the new agreement, but owing to management executive pilots’ vested interests, the revised agreement could not be implemented yet. They pointed out that the previous management had surreptitiously under the garb of the working agreement and for personal enrichment had issued an admin order (No. 14/2010 dated April 20, 2010) whereby all other flying allowance-related payments to be paid to the management executive pilots/cockpit crew on deputation with CAA/ ex-officio GM’s, were to be calculated at 1.5 times more than being received by line pilots.
Cash-strapped PIA continues its spending spree
