JEDDAH: Pakistan international Airlines (PIA) has resumed services of its international carriers starting Friday midnight in Pakistan (1900 GMT), the airlines spokesman said in a statement. The statement said at least 200 flights between Jeddah and Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and other stations were cancelled due to the strike. The strike, it said, has caused “extreme inconvenience to our valued passengers and resulted in a loss of over Rs. 1 billion ($12 million).” The PIA staff at the Jeddah international airport said flights from Jeddah to Lahore and Islamabad resumed Saturday while the first flight to Karachi and Peshawar resumes Sunday. “There is no information on any extra flights but flights from all sectors including Riyadh and Dammam have also resumed starting Saturday evening,” it added. PIA, Pakistan's state-owned airline, had grounded its flights for four days when pilots and support staff went on strike starting Tuesday over a proposal to have the struggling carrier share routes with Turkish Airlines. PIA managers say the route-sharing idea will lessen its financial losses, but strikers fear it will lead to job and pay cuts. News reports, quoting Pakistan's defense minister Ahmad Mukhtar, said that PIA's managing director Aijaz Haroon has resigned. Passengers in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam were informed of the cancellations but many had still turned up Friday, hoping for flights to resume. Shams Mohammed Akbar was walking around Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport looking for the PIA counter. He was scheduled to fly at 2 A.M. Saturday to Sialkot. After shoving his luggage around for an hour someone directed him to the PIA airport office. At the PIA office on the first floor at the airport's left-wing, he was disappointed to see the door shut and no employees were on duty. Akbar, who works as a carpenter in Jeddah, said he longed to fly to Sialkot to meet his family after two years. “On television, it was announced that services had resumed,” he said in an interview with the Saudi Gazette outside the airport where he was awaiting a taxi to take him home. “I called my friends and they said I should leave for the airport so that I don't miss my flight. Driving all the way to the airport and back is a terrible feeling.” he said. Mohammed Riyaz had traveled from Taif to the Jeddah International Airport to catch his flight but was distressed with the cancellation. “I bought my ticket a few days ago from a travel agent in Taif. The agency did not inform me of any cancellation.,” he complained. “The ground staffers had kept on saying they provide alternate flights and hotel for the stranded passengers but you can see I'm completely helpless.” PIA operates twelve flights a week from Jeddah and flies out of Riyadh and Dammam. Their destinations in Pakistan include Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Sialkot. The PIA planes have a maximum capacity of up to 800 passengers a day from Jeddah alone, the staff said.
