KARACHI: Strike action paralysed Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for a third day Thursday, stranding 25,000 passengers as the troubled state carrier said it had cancelled nearly 100 flights.
Staff oppose management plans to farm out lucrative European and US routes to Turkish Airlines, in an effort to rescue the airline from bankruptcy. They want the plan scrapped and the managing director sacked.
PIA says at least 90 flights have been cancelled since the strike began on Tuesday, including to Britain, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
“We have cancelled around 60 flights today, which includes 10 international flights including those scheduled for Birmingham, London, Dubai, Kabul, Kathmandu and Dhaka,” PIA spokesman Mashhood Tajwar told AFP.
He said flights from all airports were grounded until 3 pm but expressed hope the situation would improve following further talks with union leaders scheduled for later Thursday.
Another PIA official said about 25,000 passengers had been affected by the cancelled flights.
Union leaders went into negotiations with Interior Minister Rehman Malik in Islamabad shortly after 1 pm and a meeting was also scheduled with the parliamentary defence committee at 4 pm.
“There is corruption and mismanagement, and we agreed that conditions need to be improved in PIA,” interior minister Rehman Malik told reporters after talks with union leaders in the capital Islamabad.
“I am carrying their demands to the (government) leadership and we will meet again tomorrow to discuss how can we resolve this matter,” he said.
Suhail Baluch, president of the Pakistan Airlines Pilots Association, said the strike would continue until the codeshare agreement was abandoned, managing director Aijaz Haroon sacked and all suspended employees reinstated.
“The talks were held in a cordial atmosphere but so far there is no agreement,” he said.
“We have given them time to convey our demands to the government,” he added, after a separate meeting between union leaders and the parliamentary defence committee was postponed.
Two company officials told AFP on condition of anonymity that the strike action was costing the airline one billion rupees ($11.7 million dollars).
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called for a negotiated agreement between staff and management “in the larger interest” of the national carrier.
Five pilots have been told to stay away from work and around 70 PIA employees were forced into compulsory leave last month for “agitation” against management plans.
The proposed code-share, which still needs to be approved by the government and regulators, would mean PIA relinquishing lucrative routes to Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and US destinations New York and Chicago.
PIA last year asked the government, already saddled with mounting debt and struggling to contain the fallout from catastrophic flooding, to write off losses of $1.7 billion to save it from looming bankruptcy.
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