Strike will affect business and leisure travellers at one of Africa\u2019s most important aviation hubs
\nNAIROBI:
\nMore than two dozen flights were cancelled and thousands of passengers stranded as pilots at Kenya Airways PLC (KQNA.NR), one of Africa\u2019s biggest carriers, began a strike on Saturday, despite the government urging them to call it off.
\nThe strike that started at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) will affect business and leisure travellers at one of Africa\u2019s most important aviation hubs.
\nThe Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) said the carrier\u2019s management declined to listen to their proposals on how resolve their grievances.
\n\u201cNo KQ (Kenya Airways) aircraft has departed Jomo Kenyatta International Airport flown by a KALPA member from 6 a.m. this morning,\u201d the union said in a statement. \u201cThe strike is fully in force.\u201d
\nKenya Airways apologised to passengers in a statement and said it would do its best to minimise the inconvenience, which could include rebooking them onto alternative flights.
\nBefore the action, the company had called the planned strike unlawful and warned it could jeopardise its recovery from the pandemic, saying it could lose at least 300 million shillings ($2.5 million) a day.
\n\u201cThe pilots are throwing away the baby with the bath water,\u201d Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said on privately-owned television station NTV.
\n\u201cIt is about 10,000 passengers affected so far and if the situation continues like this, the impact on the other sectors of the economy, tourism, will be severe,\u201d the minister said, adding more than two dozen flights had been cancelled so far.
\nA stranded passenger at the airport in the capital Nairobi, who identified himself as Lawrence, said he had arrived at 5 a.m. to take a flight to Johannesburg in South Africa but \u201cunfortunately they\u2019ve just told me that it\u2019s cancelled due to the strike\u201d.
\nOther passengers told Reuters early on Saturday that the previous night was chaotic as people sought to travel before the strike started. Hundreds of passengers who had arrived in transit were trapped inside the airport as their connection flights failed to take off, they said.
\nThe pilots union had said it would call a strike over a dispute on pensions contributions and settlement of deferred pay for its members after a 14-day notice had passed without the airline\u2019s management addressing their grievances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Strike will affect business and leisure travellers at one of Africa\u2019s most important aviation hubs NAIROBI: More than two dozen flights were cancelled and thousands of passengers stranded as pilots at Kenya Airways PLC (KQNA.NR), one of Africa\u2019s biggest carriers, began a strike on Saturday, despite the government urging them to call it off. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-293457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n