NEW YORK, Sept 28: Pakistan Airlines laid off on Thursday 22 employees working in its offices in New York and Chicago in what the PIA management said was an effort to downsize the airline which was losing money.

Of the 22 employees, 15 were local recruits and seven were Pakistan-based, the airline’s general manager said here on Friday.

Some PIA workers who have worked for the airline for 30 years or more protested the decision saying that they were not given enough notice and that the decision was announced at a meeting on Thursday.

General manager Rashid Farookee, who heads the airline’s North American operations, told Dawn it was an ongoing exercise aimed at cost cutting.

“The decision made by the headquarters in Karachi was to rationalise flight versus employee ratio,” he added.

As of now the airline operates only three flights a week from New York as against seven flights a week in the past.

It also operates three direct flights from Toronto (Canada).

Mr Farookee said that besides 15 local employees, five Pakistan-based employees had been laid off or the positions were eliminated.

But many of those laid off charged that there was discrimination, saying that many workers favoured by the airline management were kept on although they had lost their utility. However, Mr Farookee maintained that the decision was made by the headquarters.