Thousands of travellers face chaos this week after Philippine Airlines sacked most of its pilots yesterday.
Six of eight scheduled flights to and from Hong Kong today have been scrapped. Cathay Pacific will use larger aircraft to carry stranded passengers to Manila and Cebu.
Philippine Airlines dismissed about 500 pilots yesterday after they failed to meet a noon deadline to return to work. It warned that flights were likely to be disrupted throughout the week because only a skeleton crew of management pilots and a small number of crew who returned to work would fly planes.
A wildcat strike started on Friday night when crew walked out over the early required 'retirement' of a 45-year-old union member and staff cuts on trans-Pacific flights.
'Regretfully, there are only very few pilots who responded to the notice to return to work. So, it's likely that a lot of our flights will continue to be cancelled,' said sales and services vice-president Avelino Zapanta.
Leaders of the 620-strong Airline Pilots' Association of the Philippines said they were digging in for a long fight.