CAA says Pakistan airspace safe despite EU warning

RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has declared the country’s airspace to be safe, despite a European air safety agency warning airlines of “high risk” to security.

The Aircraft Owners and Operators Association of Pakistan (AOOA) also disputed the safety warning.

“Pakistan airspace is 100 per cent safe and protected against any intrusions,” AOOA CEO Imran Aslam Khan said on Sunday.

He also emphasised that the country’s airports were safe for flight operations and that both commercial and private flights were operating daily without any hinderance.

On Friday, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said in an advisory that there was a continued potential threat to civil aviation when flying at low altitudes in Lahore and Karachi.

Altitudes below flight level 260, or 26,000 feet, were deemed at “high risk”. The agency recommended operators not to conduct any flights below this altitude.

The safety concerns were attributed to “the presence of violent non-state actor groups with confirmed anti-aviation weaponry, possibly MANPADS (man-portable air-defence systems).”

The advisory, valid until January 31 next year, also said that the “Kashmir region remains the site of a territorial dispute with sporadic military operations posing a potential inadvertent risk to civil aviation due to a potential risk for misidentification in case of military escalation.”

Both the CAA and AOOA opposed the EASA’s circular and requested its withdrawal.
The AOOA accused the advisory of creating false alarm and attempting to “exclude Pakistan from economic activity.”

Read next: PIA and Air China sign agreement for flights to 16 Chinese cities