The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Aviation that the new aviation policy has helped revive the business of domestic airlines.
The statement came during a meeting on Thursday under the chairmanship of MNA Haji Imtiaz Ahmed Choudhary, attended by the representatives of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), and CAA among other committee members.
A CAA official gave a detailed briefing on how the National Aviation Policy was formulated in 2019 to overcome the shortcomings in the previous policy of 2015.
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He apprised the committee that major Gulf airlines exploited the open skies policy under the National Aviation Policy 2015, which dealt a huge blow to the flight operations of domestic air carriers.
“However, the policy was revised in 2019 to encourage the growth and development of domestic airlines,” he said.
The committee also shared its grievances with the CAA official over the failure of the water drainage system at the New Islamabad International Airport during monsoon rains and made recommendations to resolve the issue.
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On the occasion, the PIA chief executive officer, Air Marshal (retd) Arshad Malik, spoke about the progress on framing the airline’s business plan and the challenges it faced during the process.
The committee sought a response from the Aviation Division to the questions that were asked during the previous meeting as well.
The Aviation Division was asked to explain the growing gap between its revenues and expenses in recent years, especially the mismanagement at the Islamabad International Airport.
