PIA announces record number of promotions for flight attendants

KARACHI: The national flag-carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), has announced the record number of promotions of 1,000 flight attendants as it was the highest-ever figure in the history citing past records, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The announcement was made through a notification issued by the administration, a copy of which obtained by ARY News, prior to the upcoming major event of Eid-ul-Azha falling on Monday (August 12).

Sources said that the large-scale promotions were made for the first time in history in Flight Services Department of the national flag-carrier as more than 600 flight attendants were promotion to Grade 4 to Grade 5, whereas, more than 90 attendants were promoted to Group 6 from Grade-5.

According to the notification, more than 121 attendants were lifted from Grade 5 to Grade 6, more than 726 from Grade 4 to Grade 5, more than 94 from Grade 6 to Grade 7 and 15 were promoted to Grade 8 from Grade 7.

Moreover, the administration has also approved the promotion of more than 100 ground staff members to the next grade. The General Manager of Flight Services Department said that the management will notify promotions of different groups of ground staff after completion of its post-Hajj flight operations.

Sources said that the phase of promotions for flight attendants was delayed due to different reasons including political pressure, priorities of employees’ unions, misusage of regulations and exemption orders.

The PIA spokesperson termed the development as the ‘record number’ of promotion in the history of the national flag-carrier as most of the crew members have been awarded promotion after 15 years.

The decision was finalised by the promotion board and the promotions were made on transparent principles which ensured merit-based promotions of the employees, the spokesperson added.