Turkish Airline has offered its services for the transport of Pakistani exports of fruit and vegetables to other countries as Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) operations to Europe have been suspended due to dubious licenses of Pilot’s.
According to exporters of fruit and vegetables, Turkish airlines will charge lower freight costs for transporting Pakistani fruit and vegetables to England, Germany and other Western countries and have ensured that this will facilitate the promotion of Pakistan’s fruit and vegetable exports. .
Previously, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had banned PIA flights to Europe for six months after reports showed that about 262 PIA pilots had questionable permits to fly.
Among other things, the ban caused problems in the export of Pakistani fruit and vegetables. In this regard, the Pakistani Embassy in Istanbul met with trade advisor Bilal Khan Pasha, the President of Turkish Airlines, Ilker Ayci, who assured that Turkish Airlines would resume air operations in Pakistan and exports of fruits and vegetables to the European Union (EU). will help).
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In addition, a delegation of exporters led by Waheed Ahmed, head of the Association of Pakistani Exporters, Importers and Traders of Fruit and Vegetables (PFVA), met Gurhan Sozen, General Manager of Turkish Airlines (GM).
According to Waheed Ahmed, the PIA has recently cut shipping costs to help exporters reduce the cost of export shipments. However, after PIA’s six-month ban, exporters will have to resort to the services of foreign carriers, which could lead to higher freight costs.
According to exporters, the Turkish Airlines GM meeting emphasized the need to reduce freight costs and provide special perishable cargo handling facilities to facilitate exports of Pakistani fruits and vegetables to Europe, the UK and Canada.
Exporters also said that the Pakistani economy is under enormous pressure from the Covid 19 pandemic, which can be remedied by the country’s increased exports. They assured that the exporters would like to export fruit and vegetables via Turkish Airlines in the long term.
GM of Turkish Airlines assured exporters that freight would be reduced and that the airline would provide excellent basic handling facilities for export shipments.
He also asked Pakistan Fruits Vegetables association to provide export volume information so that the area needed for each export shipment can be estimated and planned accordingly.
