KARACHl: The Shaheen Air International (SAl) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) continue to hurl allegations at each other with the airline claiming that actions are being taken against it unnecessarily while the regulator maintains that the SAI is not fulfilling legal formalities.
The SAI in its statement on Saturday said it was to stad its inaugural flight from Faisalabad this week but it had to postpone it. A new schedule would be announced later.
It was the second time that the inauguration flight has been postponed. A few weeks ago, the SAI was to stan the inaugural flights from Multan and Faisalabad to new destinations, but the CAA did not give permission for Multan, saying the route had not been approved yet with the result that the passengers suffered.
The SAI apologised to the passengers, saying these were routine timetable changes which the CAA was objecting to for no reason and at a great cost and inconvenience to the travelling public.
The CAA in a statement said it would take measures to ensure that no inconvenience or hardship was caused to passengers owing to the SAl`s `irresponsible` behaviour of selling tickets of unsanctioned routes.
It said that the SAl`s decision to launch new and unauthorised international routes without prior approval was not legal.
It said that starting up new routes cannot be described as a routine timetable change. Sale of tickets for unauthorised routes was not only a violation but also misled passengers into buying tickets, which became a scam for innocent potential passengers unaware of ground realities.
The CAA rejected the SAI allegations that the recent woes, distress and agony of the passengers were being caused by the regulator and said these allegations were a cover-up of the airline`s incompetence and inability to work according to the standard operating procedures.
It said that the SAI had repeatedly tried to twist the facts to shift the blame of its mismanagement, inefficiency and lawlessness on the CAA which wanted the SAI to follow rules and regulations.
