Pakistan says airspace ‘safe’ for flight operations despite European agency’s warning

KARACHI: Pakistan’s airspace is “safe” for all kinds of flight operations, the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) said on Sunday after a European air safety agency this week warned of a “continued possible threat” to aircraft flying at low altitudes in Karachi and Lahore cities. 
On July 28, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued an advisory stating that the presence of “violent non-state actor groups with confirmed anti-aviation weaponry” in Pakistan means there is a high risk to flight operations at altitudes below Flight Level (FL) 260 in Lahore and Karachi. 
The advisory also mentioned the internationally disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir remains a site of territorial dispute, adding that “sporadic military operations” in the region pose a potential risk to civil aviation and could lead to cases of misidentification in case a military conflict escalated. 
PCAA spokesperson Saif Ullah brushed aside the advisory, saying that the EASA has issued such warnings in the past frequently. 
“If we look at Pakistan, all aircraft are flying here,” Saif Ullah told Arab News. “There are no such [imminent] threats at the moment due to which we would ground aircraft because if there were any threats, we would have first grounded them.”
“In our country, our airspace is safe for all types of flight operations,” Saif Ullah concluded. 
According to EASA, its advisory will remain active till 31 January, 2024. 
Separately, Pakistan’s national airline has been grappling with a flight ban imposed by the EASA and the European Commission. The ban came into effect after the May 2020 air crash in Karachi, which was attributed to licensing problems within the national airline by one of the country’s former aviation ministers.
The EASA spokesperson has said the agency is conducting “constructive discussions” with the PCAA regarding the flight ban.