RAWALPINDI: A team of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which arrived in Karachi on Saturday night, started the audit of different departments of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Monday morning.

Sources said the four-member audit team comprised two English men, a Turkish expert and a European national.

The team held a meeting in the morning and then visited the cargo area of Karachi airport. They carried out a comprehensive visit of the airport apron / ramp area where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded.

The team remained at the apron area for more than two hours and carried out inspection of the loading and unloading process.

Auditors hold meeting, visit airport sections

The sources said the audit team also sought the record of the PIA’s engineering section and other relevant documents.

The team is expected to carry out inspection of a PIA’s flight arriving from Islamabad or Lahore.

The IATA had designed the audit programme in 2003 to assess operational management and control systems of the airlines. After the audit, the airlines are given an operational clearance certificate.

Prior to the IATA team’s visit, PIA’s Chief Executive Officer retired Air Marshal Arshad Malik had carried out inspection of operational installations and briefed the heads of engineering, ramp service and flight safety departments about the visit of the audit team.

As part of preparations, the inoperable aircraft and equipment on the ramp area of the airport had been removed. And the vacant space will be used for parking and repair work on aircraft.

The PIA chief had expressed satisfaction over the preparations and urged the staff to work with more dedication.

The IATA carries out operational safety audit every two years. The last audit of PIA was carried out in 2018.

The PIA is hopeful that the suspension of flight operations to and from Europe will end before time enabling the airline to resume the operation.

When contacted, Albert Tjoeng, assistant director corporate communications — Asia Pacific IATA — said: “Following the accident involving PK8303, we have initiated an operational safety verification audit of the PIA. This is a standard practice after an airline experiences an accident or other serious event.”

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2020