We don’t know where they are’: Strike chaos at Pakistan’s national airline has led to the carrier losing track of stranded passengers all over the world

Pakistan’sstate-owned airline has admitted that it has no idea how many of its passengers are stranded – or where – amid an ongoing strike by its staff.With no end in sight, the industrial action forced Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to suspend all of its flights to domestic and foreign destinations, including London and New York – grounding thousands of travellers and crippling the country’s major airports.The strike is in its fourth day as employees protest plans to privatise Pakistan’s flag carrier, which was previously dubbed the world’s least productive airline.

Airline spokesman Danial Hassan Gillani toldBloomberg: ‘We have no data available on how many and where passengers with confirmed PIA tickets are waiting, because theentire system is shut, servers are down and nobooking is being done.’Bloomberg called PIA the world’s least productive and most overstaffed airline, saying each of its 15,000 full-time workers earns the airline 61,000 rupees (£400, $585) a year, the lowest among 72 carriers tracked by the news agency.

Gilani said agreement had been reached with rival airlines to fly all domestic and international passengers.However, customers must pay the difference ifthe rival company’s fare is greater and the backlog is expected to take days to clear.

Earlier this week, two protesting employees were shot dead and several more wounded at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport – Pakistan’s largest hub – when clashes broke out between security forces and staff, though authorities denied opening fire.Pakistani domestic workers trying to fly to the Middle East are among those who are stranded in Karachi.Sualma Jia, who works at a hotel in Dubai, toldAFP: ‘My visa is about to expire in the next three days and I have to reach Dubai before that but here I am stuck at the airport.’She said she was not even able to retrieve her luggage from the airline, adding: ‘My future is at stake here, I tried a few private airlines but they have raised their fares by almost three times.’The strike continues despite Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s warning the demonstration was illegal and those taking part could face upto a year in prison under a law that restricts union activity in state-administered sectors.In December, Islamabad announced it would complete the partial sale of the carrier by July,following years of crushing losses and mismanagement that have battered the airline’s reputation.

Source:Dailymail.co.uk