Authorities start delinking process of Civil Aviation Authority

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan announced on Tuesday that the authorities have commenced delinking process of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) into two separate divisions, ARY News reported.

Ghulam Sarwar Khan said one division of the institution will act as an authority regulatory and second will perform its task as a commercial authority. Separate director generals will be appointed for both divisions under the aviation authority, he added.

In July last year, the minister had announced that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is being distributed into regulatory and service divisions under the new policy.

He had revealed some portions of the plan, saying that the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) is delinking into two divisions on the base of regulatory and service in principle.

He said, “After the approval of PM Imran Khan, the regulatory function will be separated from the Airport Services as proposed by the federal cabinet.” The minister added that the move will benefit the country’s aviation sector in the longer run.

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“Secondly, the National Aviation Policy 2019 stipulates the separation of regulatory function as per the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requirements. Thirdly, ICAO’s universal safety oversight audit is scheduled in September 2020.”

He also added that delinking requires comprehensive consideration of aspects like assured service quality, separation of human resource, workable reorganisation, steady revenue generation and most important, ensure safety and customer satisfaction.

He detailed that the PCAA’s regulatory will work under cabinet division and other division, Airport Services of Pakistan (ASP) will be under the Aviation Division after the implementation of the plan.

Subsequent to separation, ASP shall be registered with SECP owning 43 airports in Pakistan to continue its operations on the various commercial models, the minister announced.

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“After the valuation of assets, interested parties shall be invited for investment in a subsidiary company for initially three major airports including Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. Another model shall be to invite open tender for operating initially above three referred airports.”

In case no positive response to the above options, the company shall consider a joint venture for operating the airports, whereas, the company shall operate airport by itself in case of no acceptable responses.

While mentioning the timeline for its divisional separation, Khan said there will be the change of management committee, valuation, develop rules of business and legal reviews till August 2019. “And till September 2019, the government will seek stakeholders’ input and processing of the formal approval in its mid process review phase. Later, the government will make its implementation, administrative allocation, ICAO review and SMS review till December 2019.