PALPA demands pay hike to stop ‘pilot exodus’ from PIA

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (PALPA) has demanded an immediate increase in the salaries of pilots to ‘stop the exodus of flyers’ from the national flag carrier.

In a letter to the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) chief executive officer, the PALPA general secretary said that the salaries of pilots have not been increased since 2016.

He said that PIA pilots were joining other airlines due to low salaries in the national flag carrier.

“Private airlines are hiring their (PIA) pilots and the departure of PIA pilots fto other airlines is a major blow to the national airline,” he said seeking a competitive salary and other benefits package for PALPA pilots.

“Now that PIA flights have been restored to European countries, the salaries of PIA pilots should be increased immediately and that should be market-based.

Given the current economic situation, increased taxes and inflation, the salary raise for pilots has become unavoidable, he said.

Earlier, a PIA pilot allegedly endangered the lives of passengers when he landed the flight PK-150, arriving from Dammam, on the wrong runway at Lahore Airport. 

According to sources, the flight was redirected to Lahore due to poor weather and fog in Multan. However, instead of landing on the main runway, the pilot landed the aircraft on runway 36L, which reportedly was engulfed in darkness due to its lights being turned off at the time. 

PIA apologised on Friday for an advert of a plane flying at the Eiffel Tower, published to mark the first flight to Paris after a safety ban was lifted.

The image posted by state-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to social media showed a plane aimed at the French landmark with the caption “Paris, we’re coming today”.

In thousands of comments online, users drew comparisons with the 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York’s Twin Towers, when two planes were hijacked and flown into the skyscrapers, killing nearly 3,000.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by US special forces in 2011, while a Pakistani militant currently held in Guantanamo Bay is considered the chief mastermind of the attack.

“Unfortunately, this was blown out of proportion with connations and perceptions that were not intended,” PIA spokesman Abdullah Khan told AFP.