Ramzan 2024: PIA bars pilots, cabin crew from fasting whereas on responsibility; this is why

PIA, Pakistan’s nationwide airline, has applied a coverage forbidding its pilots and flight attendants from fasting throughout their on-flight responsibility days all through the holy month of Ramadan. This resolution relies on medical recommendation, which highlights the dangers of dehydration, fatigue, and lowered alertness related to fasting whereas performing operational duties. Pilots and cabin crew members have been instructed to not observe fasting whereas on responsibility for each worldwide and home flights.

Each the Company Security Administration and Air Crew Medical Centre have beneficial Pakistan Worldwide Airways (PIA) that pilots and cabin crew members ought to chorus from fasting throughout flights.

“The PIA’s prime administration, primarily based on these suggestions, has issued compliance orders to the pilots and cabin crew personnel with fast impact,” an official of the airline stated as quoted by information company PTI.

“The suggestions have particularly acknowledged that when an individual is fasting, he faces dehydration and problems with laziness and sleep,” the official stated.

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Final month, the investigation report on the Pakistan Worldwide Airways aircraft crash close to Jinnah Worldwide Airport in Might 2020, which claimed the lives of 101 individuals, together with 99 passengers, concluded that “human error” by the 2 pilots was the reason for the incident. The report had additionally held the PIA and the Civil Aviation Authority liable for not having clear procedures on whether or not pilots ought to quick throughout the month of Ramadan whereas on responsibility.

The board held the failure of correct judgement by the 2 pilots whereas touchdown as the principle motive for the deadly crash. Final week, Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expedited the privatisation technique of the nation’s ailing PIA, based on media studies.

PIA and losses

As per a report by the Specific Tribune newspaper, in 2022, PIA stood because the nation’s third-highest public sector loss-making entity, necessitating a month-to-month expenditure of Pakistani ₹11.5 billion solely for debt servicing.

In line with the PIA’s monetary report, the airline suffered a lack of ₹60.71 billion within the first six months of 2023 due to the depreciation of the rupee in opposition to the USD, as reported by PTI.

(With inputs from PTI)