PCAA reduces flight operations of two Kuwaiti airlines

KARACHI: The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) has reduced the flight operations of two Kuwaiti airlines in a tit for tat move after the rejection of permission to the flight operation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), ARY News reported on Thursday.

The PCAA spokesperson said that the violation of bilateral agreement was made by disallowing PIA to operate flights in Kuwait. In response, the aviation authority reduced the flight operation of two Kuwaiti airlines.

According to the PCAA, one flight of each airline will be suspended from October 1.

It emerged that Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways were operating weekly two flights to Lahore that was reduced to one flight in a week.

On September 21, the PCAA had said it was constrained to initiate “similar action for Kuwaiti designated airlines’ flight operations to/from Pakistan with effect from October 01, 2021 by restricting operations of one flight each of Kuwaiti designated airlines.”

It had been warned that the country reserved the right to completely revoke the authorisation granted to Kuwaiti-designated airlines for commercial flight operations to/from Pakistan.

Earlier on September 19, the civil aviation authority in Kuwait had barred Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) from operating flights in the Kingdom despite its airlines being allowed to operate in Pakistan, ARY NEWS reported.

The PIA is currently successfully operating flights for Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Canada, Malaysia, Afghanistan, and other central Asian countries.

The national flag carrier has also successfully undergone a safety audit carried out by transport authorities in Canada and International Air Transport Association (IATA).