PIA Increasing Cabin Crew Duty Hours & Ending Layover Hotel Facility For Certain Destinations

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Abbas Ali
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PIA Increasing Cabin Crew Duty Hours & Ending Layover Hotel Facility For Certain Destinations

Post by Abbas Ali »

According to news sources, PIA has increased duty hours of flight attendants from twelve hours to sixteen hours.

Union activities in flight services department has been banned.

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Last edited by Abbas Ali on Sat Feb 02, 2019 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: PIA Increases Cabin Crew Duty Hours

Post by Abbas Ali »

PIA has withdrawn decision to increase cabin crew duty time to sixteen hours. Duty time of twelve hours has been restored for the cabin crew.

The airline had announced financial benefits with increased duty hours.

Till approval required from Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and change in airline manual, ten hours duty time has been retained for the cabin crew.

Cabin crew had raised objections and threatened to go to courts against increased duty hours.

The increased duty hours were against airline manual and damaging from the medical point of view.

The airline's employees union People's Unity of PIA had condemned increased duty hours.

https://www.express.com.pk/epaper/PoPup ... e=20190127

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Re: PIA Increases Cabin Crew Duty Hours

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* Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) of USA expressed concerns over increased duty hours for PIA flight attendants.

* Pakistan Airlines Cabin Crew Association (PACCA) President Nasrullah Khan Afridi said that 16 hours duty for flight attendants can put passengers' lives at risk.

* Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also expressed reservations on increased duty hours for PIA cabin crew.

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https://e.dunya.com.pk/detail.php?date= ... 5_17992757

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PIA Ends Hotel Facility for Crew at a Number of Foreign Stations

Post by Abbas Ali »

According to news sources, as a cost-cutting measure, PIA has ended hotel stay facility for crew in cities of Medina, Jeddah, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. The crew will return on same aircraft to Pakistan.

This will help the airline in saving millions of rupees.

In certain cases hotel facility is also ended for crew of domestic flights.

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Re: PIA Ends Hotel Facility for Crew at a Number of Foreign Stations

Post by TAILWIND »

Wont it be torturous for crew to operate a flight of over 5-1/2 hrs , wait during turnaround and then travel back another 5 hrs. As per PIA schedule, flt to KUL departs KHI at 1730 hrs and lands back after 11 hrs at 0630 next morning. What do crew duty rules say about this?
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Re: PIA Ends Hotel Facility for Crew at a Number of Foreign Stations

Post by Tuti Fruiti »

exactly.
There are IATA rules about crew rest and those cannot be bypassed in order to save money. The current management of PIA should save money but not at the expense of violating regulations, employee rights and by passing merit . The last being direct appointment of people in violation of merit.
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Re: PIA Ends Hotel Facility for Crew at a Number of Foreign Stations

Post by amjid84 »

TAILWIND wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:33 am Wont it be torturous for crew to operate a flight of over 5-1/2 hrs , wait during turnaround and then travel back another 5 hrs. As per PIA schedule, flt to KUL departs KHI at 1730 hrs and lands back after 11 hrs at 0630 next morning. What do crew duty rules say about this?
I think people have misinterpreted this ruling. My understanding is crew will return as PAX on the same flight, thus PK will operate 2 crews on the aircraft, with the first set travelling as PAX. This saves a lot of money as hotels are not required for the 2-3 days between flights. Its better to pay for crew to travel (forgoing the revenue lost due to crew taking up PAX-seats).
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Re: PIA Ends Hotel Facility for Crew at a Number of Foreign Stations

Post by ammad »

amjid84 wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:42 pm
TAILWIND wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:33 am Wont it be torturous for crew to operate a flight of over 5-1/2 hrs , wait during turnaround and then travel back another 5 hrs. As per PIA schedule, flt to KUL departs KHI at 1730 hrs and lands back after 11 hrs at 0630 next morning. What do crew duty rules say about this?
I think people have misinterpreted this ruling. My understanding is crew will return as PAX on the same flight, thus PK will operate 2 crews on the aircraft, with the first set travelling as PAX. This saves a lot of money as hotels are not required for the 2-3 days between flights. Its better to pay for crew to travel (forgoing the revenue lost due to crew taking up PAX-seats).
That might be the technique PIA is trying to implement to make once weekly flight viable across other stations as well.
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Re: PIA Ends Hotel Facility for Crew at a Number of Foreign Stations

Post by adamalikhan »

A lot of low cost and ME3 carriers do not offer layovers on short trips.

For example Thomas Cook from the UK-Egypt fly for 5.5-6 hours. They have a one hour turn around and the same cockpit and cabin crew return back. This is one of the longest flights the crew will do. Naturally this means if there is an unexpected delay, crew will exceed allowed hours on duty and the flight is cancelled and delayed for 12 hours. The latter happens rarely and a risk the airline is prepared to take.

PIA is doing the same. It does not make sense for crew to fly 5-6 hours, then stay over for a few nights. It is a huge expense and explains why they are so much in the red.
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Re: PIA Ends Hotel Facility for Crew at a Number of Foreign Stations

Post by amjid84 »

adamalikhan wrote: Wed Jan 30, 2019 8:13 am A lot of low cost and ME3 carriers do not offer layovers on short trips.

For example Thomas Cook from the UK-Egypt fly for 5.5-6 hours. They have a one hour turn around and the same cockpit and cabin crew return back. This is one of the longest flights the crew will do. Naturally this means if there is an unexpected delay, crew will exceed allowed hours on duty and the flight is cancelled and delayed for 12 hours. The latter happens rarely and a risk the airline is prepared to take.

PIA is doing the same. It does not make sense for crew to fly 5-6 hours, then stay over for a few nights. It is a huge expense and explains why they are so much in the red.
My point exactly :)
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Re: PIA Increases Cabin Crew Duty Hours

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Lahore High Court (LHC) has sought details of cabin crew service rules & regulations.

Pakistan Airlines Cabin Crew Association (PACCA) has challenged increase in PIA cabin crew duty hours in the court.

The appeal says that increase in cabin crew duty time from twelve to sixteen hours is unreasonable and against basic rights.

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Re: PIA Increases Cabin Crew Duty Hours

Post by Abbas Ali »

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Lahore High Court (LHC) has issued notices seeking replies from PIA and Pakistan CAA in the case of increased duty hours of cabin crew.

The court suspended increased duty hours notification and issued stay order till the final decision.

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Re: PIA Ends Hotel Facility for Crew at a Number of Foreign Stations

Post by Abbas Ali »

According to PIA spokesperson:

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Jeddah five star hotel bookings, 60 to 70 rooms bookings per day, crew allowances etc. expenditures are more than five hundred million rupees per year.

Under current financial conditions, unnecessary expenditures need to be controlled.

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Re: PIA Increases Cabin Crew Duty Hours

Post by Abbas Ali »

According to PIA spokesperson:

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PIA cabin crew duty roster is according to rules & regulations.

Limit of sixteen hours duty for cabin crew is mentioned in Air Navigation Order (ANO).

Cabin crew duty hours propaganda is baseless.

So far, new roster has not been issued.

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Re: PIA Ends Hotel Facility for Crew at a Number of Foreign Stations

Post by Abbas Ali »

Duty Roster for Cabin Crew

Karachi - 02 Feb 2019 -
PIA management has instructed for worker friendly and productive roster for its cabin crew in compliance with ANO (Air Navigation Order) issued by CAA. PIA wants to ensure the best possible convenient schedule which must incorporate proper rest while at same time maintaining flight safety standards. It should also facilitate them to spend adequate time with their families. This is also necessary as happy and satisfied person with mental peace can give the best performance.

As per ANO the duty time for cabin crew is extended up to 12+4 hours (12 hours flight time and 4 hours ground time). However, the roster adopted by PIA has much lesser working hours than allowed by ANO certainly with No violation of rules and regulations.

As it is known fact that PIA has been facing dire financial constraints since past many years and as part of saving measures (but not compromising on human safety and quality of service) certain initiatives are considered after due deliberation with all stake holders. Presently just on Jeddah sector PIA is spending more than PKR 500 million per annum as 60-70 five star hotel rooms are booked per day for the cabin crew apart from normal flying allowances given to them.

However, the circular issued in this regard has not been implemented yet. The same will be evaluated after due deliberation with all stake holders before implementation. There is no truth in the baseless speculations being spread in this regard. Management is as usual will always be willing to attend the grievances if there will be any.

Source: PIA Press Release (February 2, 2019)
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