AFP/Islamabad
Passengers wait outside the departure lounge of the airport during a strike by employees of the flagship Pakistan International Airlines in Karachi yesterday
Strike action forced ailing state carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to cancel flights to Britain and Turkey yesterday, affecting more than 1,000 passengers, a spokesman said.
Pilots, crew and kitchen staff are demanding that management reinstate five pilots suspended on disciplinary grounds and are protesting against a proposed codeshare agreement with Turkish Airlines. The flights concerned were from the capital Islamabad to Birmingham in central England and Istanbul, as well as four domestic flights. Another flight from Karachi to Dubai was delayed by several hours for “operational reasons”, spokesman Mashhood Tajwar said.
“Today’s strike affected about 1,500 passengers overall,” he said. Five pilots were recently suspended and around 70 PIA employees forced into compulsory leave last month over “agitation” against management plans, a senior company official said on condition of anonymity.
 If it goes through, the codeshare agreement will see PIA suspend flights to Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and US destinations New York and Chicago.