A staff member of Pakistani national airline gets penalised for travelling to Canada without a passport

Islamabad: According to Geo News, an air hostess employed by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was fined $200 by Canadian authorities after she boarded a flight without a valid passport. This is a rare incident. According to sources connected to Pakistan’s national carrier, she had to board the aircraft using the general declaration paperwork since she had forgotten to bring her passport on flight PK-781 to Toronto.

“A PIA flight hostess without a passport made her way from Islamabad to Toronto. When the flight’s irresponsibility was detected, she was penalised 200 Canadian dollars (about PKR 42,000) by the Canadian authorities, according to the article.

The event and the penalties levied on the air hostess for travelling to Canada without a passport were verified by the PIA. According to an airline representative, she dropped her passport at the airport in Karachi. But he refuted rumours that she was applying for political asylum in Canada, claiming that she was taking flight PK-782 back to Pakistan.

Concerns were raised by the occurrence since PIA flight attendants had been missing for some time and were applying for immigration to Canada. Following their arrival in Canada in recent weeks, more than ten PIA flight attendants have vanished into hiding.

Employees of the PIA vanish in Canada
According to media sources, a male Pakistani flight attendant disappeared last month after his aircraft touched down in Toronto, Canada. This was the second incidence of that kind in as many days, after the disappearance of a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) cabin crew member in Toronto. Jibran Baloch, the steward, was named; he did not appear on the aircraft back to Pakistan.

On Thursday, Baloch, a PIA flight steward, worked on PIA aircraft PK-782. The PIA personnel checked his hotel room after he vanished and determined that he had escaped. This occurred only one week after Maryam Raza, a 15-year PIA veteran, failed to report for duty on the aircraft from Canada back to Karachi.

After her aircraft arrived in Canada in January of this year, another stewardess, Faiza Mukhtar, disappeared. A PIA spokesman said, “Ms. Mukhtar did not show up [in Toronto] on the national flag carrier’s scheduled return to the country, so the flight had to proceed without her.” A few years ago, the attendant was placed on suspension due to her suspected participation in the smuggling of foreign cash and cell phones.

According to a statement released after the cabinet meeting last month, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has been losing money for years, and the company’s guardians decided to split it into two organisations only two days before the elections. Experts surmise that the crew members’ poor pay and worries about PIA’s future are what are driving them to flee after arriving in Canada rather than returning home.

The European Union (EU) countries have banned Pakistani airlines from operating in their territories due to issues with pilot licences caused by a lack of professionalism, according to a white paper released by the Aircraft Owners and Operators Association (AOOA) of Pakistan on March 14. The AOOA underlined in the white paper how crucial it is to place qualified people in appropriate roles within the sector. According to Dawn, they listed many causes for the industry’s downturn and suggested solutions.