Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) should plug the loopholes to stop disappearance of its crew members in Canada in search for greener pastures.
Despite preventive measures such as collecting passports, obtaining affidavits, assigning cabin crew over the age of 50 on Canada flights, the airline has failed to foil such incidents.
The main potential factors behind the disappearances of its crew members are thought to be low salaries and concerns about the airline’s expected privatisation, as well as Canada’s relatively liberal asylum policies.
According to a Dawn report, one more PIA flight attendant went missing after landing in the Canadian city of Toronto on the first day of Eid Al Adha.
So far, at least seven crew members have disappeared this year, badly damaging the image of the national airline of Pakistan.
In total, 14 crew members did not return for duty after landing in Toronto during the last 18 months — from January 2023 to June 2024.
According to media reports, the latest case involved Noor Sher, a member of the flight attendant team, assigned to flight PK 781 from Pakistan to Toronto. Sher’s disappearance was noticed last week when he did not report for his scheduled return flight.
The airline’s officials said the trend of flight attendants ‘going missing’ was due to Canada’s flexible laws, which offers asylum after entering the country.
Air hostess Faiza Mukhtar reportedly slipped away in Canada in January this year. Faiza who was on duty on flight PK 781 from Islamabad to Toronto did not report for the return flight.
Flight steward Jibran Baloch too disappeared from his hotel room in Toronto on February 29 this year. Baloch was scheduled to return to Karachi on flight PK 782 but failed to report for duty. The PIA staff in Toronto checked his hotel room, and found that Baloch had slipped away, vanishing in Canada.
Earlier the same week, air hostess Maryam Raza left a note and her uniform in her hotel room before disappearing in Toronto. Her disappearance followed a similar pattern, as she did not report for her return flight to Karachi.
In 2022, four members of the PIA cabin crew failed to show up for duty and sought asylum in Canada.
Keeping in view the quantum of such disappearances of cabin crew members, the airline has taken several steps to stop such eventualities. Besides the measures that PIA has already taken, it should also improve cabin crews’ salary structure and bring it on par with other international airlines.