FlySafair flights cancelled amid pilot strike

DOMESTIC airline FlySafair said it was forced to cancel at least 26 flights yesterday amid a strike by the airline's pilots.

- JONISAY| MAROMO [e-mail]

The company said it had received last-minute updates from certain pilots informing the carrier that they would not make it to work yesterday morning.

In an interview at the OR Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, Kirby Gordon, Chief Marketing Officer for FlySafair, said the interruption of flights was regrettable and had left some passengers stranded.

"What we are experiencing at the moment is that we have an industrial action on the part of our pilots, they have embarked on a stay-away strike which started today. They have deemed it to happen for two weeks.

"Unfortunately, we had a number of commitments from a number of pilots to be able to cover our schedule today.

Late last night, we received information from several of them, that they would be unable to fulfil their duties. As a result, we have had to cancel 26 of 174 flights today. So there has been cancellations, we apologise very deeply to our customers who have been stranded. Unfortunately, our hands are tied in this regard, because of the industrial action that is going on," he said.

As an intervention, Gordon said that Flysafair teams were assisting customers, and in some instances giving refunds.