ITF expresses concern over PIA forcing cabin crew to exceed flight time

KARACHI: The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has expressed deep concern over the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) breaching Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms by making its cabin crew exceed their flight time, reported ARY News.

The ITF, a global union federation representing nearly 20 million transport workers across 150 countries, including Pakistan, wrote an email letter to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) director general.

“We are writing to you today to share our deep concern over issues that have been raised by our affiliated unions in Pakistan International Airlines. It is our understanding that Pakistan International Airlines has violated the national regulation ANO 910012 regarding Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL),” the letter read.

“As you know, the protection of limits of Flight Duty Time is of crucial importance to air safety.

Throughout the history of aviation, we have seen accidents and incidents occur when pilots and cabin crew members operation unnecessarily long duties that have a direct effect on their level of fatigue. As airlines are pushing the boundaries of FDTL, human error is becoming the main cause of aircraft incidents and accidents.”

The letter said PIA is a world-class airline, expressing the hope that the CAA can engage with the local unions in a meaningful manner to ensure that such regulations are not broken and the highest level of protection against fatigue can be maintained.

“The ITF remains in a position to assist both you and PIA in implementation or in engaging with your worker representatives in a meaningful way to improve air safety. However, due to our concern we may need to escalate this issue to the international level.

We remain hopeful, however, that a solution can be found locally in consultation with our affiliation unions in Pakistan.”