I base it on the fact they seem to change their minds all the time, i don't have faith in the PIA General Manager Revenue Manager, Mr Rashid Aziz, saying "enable us to extend a better service with a B777 in the near future". Use Glasgow as an example.
And with the fact the A310 is going to be banned from EU airspace again due to serious flaws, which could include the B777 aircraft of PIA fleet, i dont think the route will last.
[textarea]
PIA’s Airbus operations in Europe face ban
Javed Mirza
Friday, September 09, 2011
KARACHI: French aviation authorities have asked the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Pakistan to submit report on compliance over the shortcomings detected by Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft Programme (SAFA) inspectors on a PIA Airbus A-310 on August 09, 2011.
Failure to comply may result in ban on PIA’s Airbus operations in European airspace.
The CAA was supposed to submit compliance report by September 7, 2011.
A spokesman for the CAA said the report had been submitted, but sources told The News it had not been. The passengers were evacuated in emergency when the safety team detected fuel leak from one of the engines of Airbus A310 flying from Paris to Lahore. Gilbert Guicheney, Director Civil Aviation France, in a letter written on August 23, 2011, asked the CAA to furnish complete details of rectification of the faults.
The letter demands a “detailed evaluation on the adequacy and efficiency of the corrective action plan proposed and implemented by PIA in regard to the identified safety deficiencies”.
The French aviation authority underlined a list of elements appearing among the common criteria for consideration of an operating ban for safety reasons at European level listed in the European Regulation.
These elements include lack of transparency or adequate and timely communication on the part of the carrier in response to an inquiry by the CAA of a member state regarding the safety aspect of its operation, inappropriate or insufficient corrective action plan and lack of cooperation with the CAA of a member state by the authorities of another state. The aircraft of the national flag carrier that had been detained at the French airport owing to safety reasons citing some 39 faults including fuel leakage arrived in the city on Monday.
Sources said the plane was returning home from Milan via Paris and when it landed at Charles de Gualle airport the European aviation inspectors detected the faults and directed the crew to offload the passengers.
One of the snags that the inspectors pointed out relates to the crew’s lack of efficiency as it said that the crew was not able to manage a quick and correct emergency evacuation of the aircraft on the fireman’s request. Evacuation took place 20 minutes after the fireman’s request, said the aviation regulator.
Aviation experts said that since the regulator lacks proper independent human resource and PIA pilots are on both sides of the table, the safety procedures had been compromised by CAA officials.
Sources said that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) mentioned in one of its audit report that the CAA Pakistan’s acquiring technical human resource from an operator created conflict of interest. It said the CAA Pakistan should develop its own human resource for better regulatory operations.
Sources said Christophe Bruni, DGAC Safety Oversight Directorate (DSAC) Of Foreign Airlines Observatory Program Manager, sent a letter to CAA Pakistan on September 2, stating that he was looking forward to receiving evidence of the corrective action plan as well as evaluation on the adequacy and efficiency of the proposed corrective actions. Captain Javed Saeed Chaudhry, a CAA official, had written a letter to DG CAA France assuring full implementation of safety standards in light of inspection report by SAFA Inspectors.
The CAA letter mentioned that PIA had been directed to further improve its safety programme and intimate CAA for perusal and approval.
“At our end we have intensified our surveillance programme to eliminate the safety discrepancies,” the letter added.
Source[/textarea]
And if worse comes to worse and the A310 Fleet is banned, it is the most definite perfect excuse to close the LBA-ISB route.