There was no end insight to the miseries of thousands of PIA passengers as no private airline is poised to accommodate them without the endorsement of the national flag carrier; it is learnt Friday. PIA had claimed to have reaching agreements with Etihad Airways, Shaheen Air and Airblue to accommodate the frustrated passengers.
However, these airlines have appeared reticent to take PIA passengers on board in their flights with the rationale they could not accommodate them without the airline's endorsement, dashing the hopes of thousands of passengers and dragging them into a state of chaos. When contacted, a spokesman said that although agreements have been made with these private airlines, only those passengers, having PIA endorsement on their tickets could be allowed to travel through these airlines.
Replying to a question, he said the airline was unable to open counters for endorsement on passengers' tickets, following the sit-in protest, which continued since January 26, 2016, against PIA privatisation. Keeping the situation in view, the PIA has now announced that international and domestic tickets, which are not utilised during strike days, would be fully refunded without any additional charges, as normal operation resumes, the spokesman said.
The spokesman in another statement said the Airport Security Force (ASF) has cancelled airport entry passes of all PIA employees at all airports of Pakistan in view of ongoing strike and added that passes would be reissued after the strike in consultation with PIA management. Meanwhile, sources in PIA said that initiative taken by the airline to refund all international and domestic tickets, which were not utilised during strike days, was a formidable task as PIA despite resuming its flights operation would take months to return to normal.
They said PIA, which was already on 'ventilator' due to financial constraints, normally sold 10,000 tickets per day, hence the refund amount would deal a financial blow to the airline running into millions.
AFP adds: Major airports remained crippled by industrial action Friday as a strike by employees of the national flag carrier against plans to privatise the airline entered its fourth day. All of Pakistan International Airlines' foreign and domestic flights were suspended Friday with thousands of passengers, including Pakistani domestic workers trying to fly to the Middle East, stranded at Karachi's international airport and other key hubs.
"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," Sualma Jia, who works at a hotel in Dubai, told AFP in Karachi.
She said she was not even able to retrieve her luggage from the airline. "My future is at stake here, I tried a few private airlines but they have raised their fares by almost three times," she said. PIA spokesman Danial Hassan Gillani said agreements had been reached with rival airlines to fly all domestic and international passengers, including dozens of pilgrims heading for Saudi Arabia who held a protest after their flight was cancelled. However, passengers must pay any price increase and the backlog is expected to take days to clear, with no end in sight to the industrial action.
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