Kenya Airways pilots extended their strike forcing further flight cancellations as the company warned of disciplinary action against anyone participating.
Thousands of passengers were stranded as a result of the strike by the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA), which earlier said that no Kenya Airways flight flown by its members had departed Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport from 6:00 am onwards on Saturday.
The pilots announced the strike in defiance of a court order against industrial action and gave no indication of how long it would last.
On Saturday, the airline’s managing director and CEO, Allan Kilavuka, warned the protesting pilots, who make up 10 percent of the workforce, to return to work “failure to do so will lead to immediate disciplinary action”.
The airline, part owned by the government and Air France-KLM, is one of the biggest in Africa, connecting multiple countries to Europe and Asia, but it is facing turbulent times, including years of losses.
The pilots’ strike has thrown over 9,000 passengers’ plans into disarray, according to the airline, with travellers turning up to the Nairobi airport on Sunday, only to find out that their flights were cancelled.
The pilots are pressing for the reinstatement of contributions to a provident fund and payment of all salaries stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The carrier has warned that the strike would jeopardise its recovery, estimating losses at $2.5 million per day if the pilots went ahead with their plans.
The airline was founded in 1977 following the demise of East African Airways and flies more than four million passengers to 42 destinations annually.
It has been operating in large part thanks to state bailouts following years of losses.
Source: Nam News Network