EU, UK Ban Pakistani International Airlines For Six Months Over Pilots’ Fake License Scandal

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency, or EASA, has banned Pakistan's national airline from operating in its member states for six months.

The development follows an admission by Pakistan’s aviation minister that hundreds of the country’s commercial pilots, including many who work at state-run Pakistan International Airlines, or PIA, may have fake licenses.

"EASA has temporarily suspended PIA's authorization to operate to the EU member states for a period of [six] months effective July 1, 2020 with the right to appeal against this decision," PIA said.

EASA said in a letter to Pakistani officials that it was “concerned about the validity of the Pakistani pilot licenses and that Pakistan… is currently not capable to certify and oversee its operators and aircraft in accordance with applicable international standards.”

EASA also told PIA "it is still not sure" if the remaining pilots were properly qualified, and that the agency has "lost their confidence" in the airline.

“There are strong indications that a high number of Pakistani pilots’ licenses are invalid,” EASA added. “PIA persists in failing to demonstrate compliance with the applicable standards.”

Although the U.K. is no longer part of the EU, the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority, or CAA, has also blocked PIA.

“PIA flights from Birmingham, London-Heathrow and Manchester airports are suspended with immediate effect,” said a CAA spokesman. “The CAA is required under law to withdraw PIA’s permit to operate to the U.K. pending EASA’s restoration of their approval that it meets international air safety standards.”

PIA has vowed to enact reforms in its business and added it will appeal the EASA decision. (The airline can appeal within the next two months.)

“PIA is in touch with EASA to allay their concerns and hopes that the suspension will be revoked,” the airline tweeted.

PIA added that it "sincerely hopes that with reparative and swift actions taken by the government of Pakistan and PIA management, [the] earliest possible lifting of this suspension can be expected.”

PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez said the airline had hoped to restart flights to Oslo, Copenhagen, Paris, Barcelona and Milan within the next two months.

“It is hurting us really bad,” he said, referring to the pilots’ fake licenses.

“The saddest part for PIA is that we had alerted the regulatory agency and the government,” Hafeez said. “We have really hit rock bottom, I am so sad to say.”

The smaller Vision Air International carrier also falls under the edict.

Last week, Gulham Sarwar Khan, the aviation minister in Islamabad, said that 262 of the country's 860 active pilots either owned fake licenses or had cheated in their licensing exams. More than half of those pilots worked for PIA, forcing the carrier to suspend 141 of its 434 pilots.

Since the pandemic struck, PIA has operated overseas flights on a limited basis. After the airline resumed domestic flights several weeks ago, a passenger jet crashed in Karachi killing 98 people – an accident attributed to human error.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan told parliament that the government will help to reform PIA.

"We have no other option, reforms are inevitable," Khan said Tuesday.

Aviation minister Khan said plans designed to reform and restructure PIA would be finished by the end of the year (when EASA’s prohibition would presumably expire).

Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, a senior official in the opposition Pakistan People's Party, said PIA's problems "put the country's reputation at stake."

"The decision of the European Union is the result of successive follies of incompetent rulers," Ahmed said.

The Pakistan government has since sacked five officials of its Civil Aviation Authority, the regulatory agency that issues pilots licenses, and may file criminal charges related to the ongoing scandal.

But Pakistan aviation unions have expressed doubts that so many pilots have fake licenses.

Chaudhry Salman, president of the Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association, told Reuters: “[The list of suspended pilots] contains names of highly educated and qualified pilots who have passed all the tests. We want a fair and impartial resolution to this matter.”