MEA Grounded over Pilot Strike, Releases Revised Tuesday Schedule

Flag carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) was grounded in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday as pilots staged a 48-hour strike over the dismissal of a colleague undergoing treatment for cancer.

"We have grounded 10 out of 15 flights today," said Captain Fadi Khalil, head of the pilots' union.

"Unfortunately 15 out of 180 MEA pilots have not abided by the strike, but we plan on continuing until tomorrow night," Khalil told AFP.

MEA pilots announced a strike from 10:00 pm on Monday to 10:00 pm Wednesday, covering all flights, over the sacking of a cancer-stricken captain.

Khalil said the captain had served the airline for 38 years and was laid off as soon as he went on sick leave.

One disgruntled passenger at Beirut airport on Tuesday described a scene of "total chaos" at the check-in counters, adding he had given up on trying to find a flight out of the country.

Journalists were not allowed past airport security.

MEA pilots are demanding that their sick colleague be given 75 days of full pay and 75 days of half pay, in accordance with Lebanese law.

Khalil said the company was offering compensation, but outside the framework of the law.

MEA chairman Mohamed al-Hout has dismissed the strike call as "illegal and arbitrary," and said the company's board planned to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue.

On Monday, MEA announced: "In light of the surprising strike announced by the pilots’ union, and in light of the willingness of a significant number of pilots to secure the normalcy of the company’s flights … the company announces as a first step that it will operate the following flights, from and to the Rafik Hariri International Airport between 1:00 am and 12:00 pm Tuesday, November 29, 2001: Paris (ME 209/210), Brussels (ME 215/216), Paris (ME 211/212), London (201/202), Frankfurt (ME 217/218), Istanbul (ME 265/266) and Baghdad (ME 322/323).”

“Efforts are underway to secure the progress of other flights aboard the company’s airplanes, which will be announced at a later time. Anyhow, the departure of passengers will be secured via the airplanes of other companies if the need arises,” it noted.

On Tuesday, it announced that flights for that day have not been altered, except one for Irbil (ME 324/325), which will take off from Beirut’s international airport at 10:45 pm.

Schedules for flights Dammam (ME 442/443), Cairo (ME 306/307), and Riyadh (ME 422/423) have not been changed.