ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) senior executive Khurram Mushtaq has been appointed as the acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the airline, while the airline is preparing to resume flights to European countries after the lifting of the ban.
As per private Tv channel report, Khurram Mushtaq previously headed PIA’s Commercial, Airport Services, Flight Services, Security, and Vigilance departments.
Khurram Mushtaq will take charge of his post after the end of Air Vice Marshal Amir Hayat’s tenure, but it was not specified when he would take over.
On November 30, the European Union Air Safety Agency (EASA) lifted the ban on Pakistan International Airlines’ flight operations in Europe.
The next day (December 1), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) indicated the resumption of flights on European routes soon after the European Union’s aviation regulator (EASA) lifted the ban on flight operations.
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PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez Khan said that the airline plans to resume flight operations to Europe in the next three to four weeks.
It is worth noting that the Pakistani government had urged the European Union Air Safety Agency to temporarily lift the ban due to the sale of 60 percent of the airline’s shares.
In June 2020, the then-Aviation Minister, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, revealed in the National Assembly that a large number of commercial pilots had obtained “dubious licenses.”
On July 1, 2020, the European Union Air Safety Agency (EASA) temporarily suspended Pakistan International Airlines’ permission to operate flights to European countries for six months. Subsequently, on April 8, 2021, the European Union’s Aviation Safety Agency extended the travel restrictions on PIA indefinitely.