Government to review open sky policy and air service agreements

The government of Pakistan has decided to review National Aviation Policy on urgent basis as “open skies clauses and associated Air Service Agreements (ASA) of the National Aviation Policy including routes, slots and capacity accorded to foreign airlines have been discriminatory and disadvantageous to the national flag carrier.” The Aviation division is tasked to undertake this review and come up with a beter policy.

This is one of the major issues facing Pakistan’s domestic airlines, as they struggle to compete. Time and again this issue was raised. But the PML-N government failed to address it, rather aggravated the situation by implementing NAP 2015. A policy that harmed the domestic aviation sector more than anything else.

• U.S. Federal Aviation Administration downgraded the safety ranking of Pakistan’s civilian airline system
• Extensive backchannel work underway to get EASA TCO authorisation
• Emirates sacked 800 pilots in one day including 3 Pakistani pilots
• Federal Aviation Administration revokes PIA authorisation of PIA for USA flights
• Civil Aviation Authority suspended commercial flying licenses of 34 PIA pilots

The government also decided to review the taxes and duties levied by PCAA on domestic airlines for use of PCAA facilities. It was deemed too high as compared to other countries in the region and CAA was tasked to review this. CAA is tasked to review and rationalise it for the comfort of doing business in the Aviation Industry.

The minister for revenue Hammad Azhar is going to review the tax regime for the airline industry and for air travel in Pakistan, which is considered very high.