BEIRUT: Most Middle East Airlines flights will remain grounded Friday as pilots extend their strike after the Central Bank, a main MEA shareholder, backed the national carrier’s management in seeking compensation from the pilots.
“Governor [Riad] Salameh said the decisions of the company were final and that strict measures would be taken, despite his positive view of the role of Lebanese pilots,” Fadi Khalil, head of Lebanese Pilots Association told The Daily Star after his meeting with Salameh late Thursday.
Khalil claimed that Salameh told the pilots that MEA was losing money and that he could not support the carrier indefinitely.
“This prompted us to thank the governor and take a decision to proceed with our strike,” Khalil added.
Khalil said that the pilots would continue their strike until MEA chairman Mohammad Hout quits his job.
The LPA had announced earlier that the strike would proceed until warning letters sent to the pilots were withdrawn and their salaries were paid in full.
MEA had sent out individual letters, to each one of the pilots participating in the strike, warning it would lay off any pilot who remained on strike.
This was reiterated Thursday by Hout, who had told The Daily Star Wednesday that he will fire any pilot who continues the strike.
But Emile Hajjar, senior LPA official, did not believe that MEA would be able to lay off the pilots, adding that the vast majority of MEA pilots were backing the strike.
“Only 19 out of 180 MEA pilots went back to work. And those who continued working did this after the management threatened to fire their relatives who work in the company,” he said.
Hajjar told The Daily Star that the association had sent a communique to the directorate-general of Civil Aviation asking it to investigate whether MEA is being compliant with flight time limitations.
According to regulations set by the DGCA, Lebanese pilots can fly no more than eight hours in any given 24 hours. Flying hours should not exceed 120 hours in any 30 consecutive days.
But MEA said, in various statements issued Thursday, that flights to Paris, London, Baghdad, Doha, Amman, Cairo, Kuwait, Irbil and Jeddah would go ahead as scheduled. It later indicated more flights to Doha, Amman, Cairo, Kuwait and Irbil would also go as planned.
This raised questions on whether the national carrier was still able to abide by those regulations, which intended to maintain a high flight-safety standard.
Head of DGCA Hamdi Chaouk told The Daily Star he believed MEA was indeed violating flight time limitations.
MEA said in a statement that it “will continue to secure the transportation of passengers traveling during this period either on its flights or on flights of other carriers when necessary.”
It added that passengers holding confirmed MEA tickets for flights between the Nov. 29 and Dec. 6, may be rebooked or rerouted free of charge.
The strike was initially prompted by the layoff of cancer-stricken pilot Joseph Ayat. The pilot had served in the company for 38 years.
The company insisted that the sick pilot had received all his rights from the company and had been treated fairly and in accordance with the Lebanese law. The LPA strongly challenged this claim and instigated the strike in protest.
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