BEIRUT – Pilots from Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines will begin a 24-hour strike from Thursday, the pilots’ syndicate said, disrupting 23 flights and potentially affecting the travel plans of thousands of passengers.

The pilots are seeking benefits they lost during the flagship carrier’s wide-range restructuring in 2001, including higher starting salaries and more holidays.

“In principle, this is a cautionary strike. If we don’t get our rights, next week … there will be another strike,” the head of the Lebanese Pilots’ Association, Mahmoud Houmany, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Houmany said the strike would begin from 3 a.m. (0000 GMT) on Thursday. He earlier said the strike would start three hours later.

The strike action will disrupt flights to and from Europe and the Middle East. Some 5,000 passengers travel daily on MEA, Houmany told Reuters. However, two flights from Paris and Abidjan would be allowed to fly and would land in Beirut at their usual times on Thursday.

MEA Chairman Mohamad El-Hout declined to comment and said he would hold a news conference on Thursday. MEA’s website described the syndicate’s action as an “illegal disruption”.

MEA underwent major restructuring from 1998-2002, helping it reverse losses and return to a $22 million profit in 2003, according to its website.

More than 1,000 employees were made redundant during the overhaul and pilots were issued with new contracts that increased their hours and cut back benefits. Staff resisted the overhaul, holding a series of sit-ins and strikes.

Fadi Khalil, a pilot with MEA for 15 years, said that while starting salaries for most international pilots were between $5,000-$7,000 per month, MEA pilots at the beginning of their careers only made about $3,000.

MEA contracts also stipulate that pilots have to pay back with interest the cost of their training licences, some $100,000, which are deducted from their salaries.

Houmany said they were also demanding 42 days of holiday instead of 30 and that there be no “upper ceilings” on salaries.

MEA posted a net profit in 2009 of $105 million. The airline, set up in 1945, is majority owned by the central bank.

MEA’s management has always hoped to privatise the airline but plans to float some shares on the stock market have been repeatedly delayed.

Source: business.maktoob.com