According to an AFP report, the managing director of the PIA resigned on Friday to end the four-day strike that had crippled the carrier. Pakistan’s defense minister Ahmad Mukhtar was quoted by the agency as saying: “Managing director, PIA, Aijaz Haroon has resigned.”
PIA has so far suffered a loss of SR90 million due to cancellation of over 250 flights, including those operating in the Gulf-Pakistan sector.
“There have been four cancellations of PIA flights from Jeddah so far, while some cancellations have also been reported in Dammam,” said Mohammed Arshad, manager of PIA operations in Jeddah, on Friday.
Arshad said the PIA operated 30 flights a week to different Pakistani cities from the Kingdom. “I am hopeful that PIA will resume normal operations from early Saturday,” said the PIA manager.
Speaking on his part, Nasir Ali, manager of PIA operations in Riyadh, said two flights from Riyadh — one to the port city of Karachi and the other to Peshawar — were cancelled as protests from PIA employees entered the fourth consecutive day.
In fact, the carrier canceled all flights to Saudi Arabia on Thursday and Friday. PIA has scrapped all domestic and international departures on Thursday and Friday, said the official.
“Today is the third day of a complete shutdown, and there are no takeoffs, and also no landings of PIA planes at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh,” he added. Asked about the total number of flights operating from Riyadh, Ali said that PIA operated eight flights a week from the capital to the Pakistani cities of Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore. He said the airline has no flights on Friday.
“We have a flight from Riyadh to Islamabad on Saturday,” said the PIA manager. Whatever the case may be, passengers are the worst sufferers, though the top government leadership has failed to take any initiatives to resolve the issue, said Naeem Jameel, a Pakistani executive working in Riyadh. The argument between the PIA management and the employees’ unions started after reports of PIA routes being sold to Turkish Airlines in December.
Asked about status of flights from Jeddah to Pakistani cities, Arshad said that four flights — two to Karachi and one each to Lahore and Islamabad — were canceled due to the strike. In many cases, PIA staff in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam refunded the tickets and worked very hard to put passengers on other flights, he added.
Sharif Islam, a passenger bound for Karachi, said that the airline did not do anything for him. He claimed that he was not informed about the cancellation.
Hundreds of Pakistani expatriates are continuing to make a beeline to travel agencies in the Eastern Province to get a refund for their PIA tickets.
“There is total confusion and it has thrown my travel and vacation plan off gear,” said Waseem Sajjad, an Ahsa-based Pakistani expatriate who was to take a PIA flight to Islamabad from King Fahd International Airport on Thursday.
“The PIA representative at the airport has asked me to get in touch with my agent and to get a refund.”
Nadeem R. Khan of Ziyad Travel & Tours acknowledged that things are in pretty bad shape. “The situation is extremely bad for those who had gone to Pakistan on a round trip ticket from Dammam,” he said. “They have nobody to turn to because they had purchased the tickets here in Saudi Arabia. They are making phone calls to the agents here. Now they are being forced to buy one-way tickets from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad from other airlines at exorbitant fares.”
He said many expatriates were in dire straits because their Saudi exit-reentry visas are on the verge of expiration. “They are in a state of panic and they are helpless because all PIA offices in Pakistan are shut.”
Khan said PIA operates a daily flight to the three Pakistani cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad from Dammam. “PIA has three Dammam-Karachi-Dammam flights, three Dammam-Lahore-Dammam flights and one flight to the Pakistani capital Islamabad.”
