Overhauled PIA plane to be used on all routes

RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan International Airlines has made a Boeing 777 aircraft, which had been grounded for over one and a half years, operational to be used for Haj flights and on all other routes, it emerged on Friday.

With the latest addition, the number of Boeing 777 planes in the PIA fleet has risen to 12, while the airline also expects to make two more aircraft — an ATR and an Airbus A-320 — operational by the end of June.

Both planes have been lying out of service for the past one year. Making the two aircraft operational, too, will help the PIA increase its revenue while facilitating maximum number of passengers.

Two more aircraft being repaired to make them operational by end of June

PIA CEO Air Marshal Arshad Malik had soon after assuming his charge instructed the engineering team to make the aircraft operational at the earliest so that it could generate revenue.

PIA spokesman Mashhood Tajwar told Dawn that the CEO congratulated the engineering team on making the aircraft airworthy and their continuing efforts to make two more aircraft serviceable in near future. The CEO was quoted as saying that this showed the commitment and dedication that was required to revive the PIA. For achieving this feat, which was considered by some as nearly impossible, efforts of the PIA engineering and other departments were appreciated.

The Boeing 777 aircraft had been grounded for lack of spares and financial constraint for more than 18 months.

The PIA spokesman said that with the addition of the plane, the number of Boeing 777 in the fleet had increased to 12. This would be a great help for the airline to smoothly run the forthcoming Haj operations, he added.

The Boeing 777 plane, bearing registration BHV, had been considered abandoned before the engineering and maintenance team had started working on it and finally overhauled it.

The PIA spokesman said the plane would be used on all routes, including Europe and the Middle East.

“Had this aircraft been not made operational, the PIA would have been facing lot of problems, especially in upcoming peak season, as it had to cancel some Europe route flights,” the spokesman said, adding that the two more aircraft, which had been grounded for the past one year, would be made operational by the end of June.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2019

from The Dawn News - Home http://bit.ly/2JPIaPz
via IFTTT

IT ministry forms panel to review social media rules

ISLAMABAD: While uproar against the new rules to regulate social media continues from various segments of society, including parliamentarians, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and civil society, the information technology ministry on Friday formed a committee to review the rules. The federal cabinet approved the rules on Feb 11, but later after opposition from various quarters, including companies that manage different social media platforms, the prime minister announced that a fresh consultation process would be launched over the Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules 2020. The committee formed by the IT ministry is headed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Amir Azeem Bajwa while its members are Eazaz Aslam Dar, additional secretary of IT; Tania Aidrus, member of the Strategic Reforms Implementation Unit, Prime Minister Office; and Dr Arslan Khalid, focal person on digital media at the PM Office. Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Ma

Arif Alvi files request to be acquitted in the PTV attack case

He says he never asked for presidential immunity in the case from Samaa Digital https://ift.tt/2DHMdvh

Young girl’s tragic story makes her symbol of Yemen war

Buthaina Mansur al-Rimi’s life has changed drastically since last year — orphaned in Sanaa, the little girl controversially ended up in Saudi Arabia for medical care and has just returned to Yemen’s capital. Her entire immediate family was wiped out in an air strike by a Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen’s government, using an explosive device Amnesty International says was made in the US. Images of Buthaina’s rescue and a picture of her swollen and bruised at a hospital trying to force open one of her eyes with her fingers were beamed worldwide. That international fame saw her become something of a propaganda pawn in the war between Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels and Saudi media. “I was in my mother’s room with my father, sisters, brother and uncle, the first missile hit, and my father went to get us sugar to get over the shock, but then the second missile hit, and then the third,” she says. “And then the house fell,” adds the little girl, who says she is eight. It was the

Latest News

Search This Blog