EU ban on PIA to be lifted soon: spokesperson

KARACHI: The ban imposed by the European Union on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight operations is anticipated to be lifted soon, ARY News reported on Saturday.

According to sources, an Audit team of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to do a remote online in which they will inspect all the various issues related to flight operation including flight safety and flight engineering.

The EASA team will carry out a safety audit of CAA and PIA prior to allowing flights from Pakistan to European countries, said sources.

PIA Spokesperson stated that all the preparations related to the online audit of EASA have completed, he also anticipated that after the successful audit of the airline operations, the operations of PIA will be resume in Europe.

It may be noted here that PIA was restricted from flying to EU states after the EASA suspended the national airline’s authorisation to operate flights to EU member states.

The restrictions were imposed in the wake of the May 20, 2022, Karachi plane crash and a statement by Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar that around 40 percent of Pakistani pilots had fake licences.