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By Libya Herald staff.
Benghazi, 1 February 2016:
Staff at Libyan Airlines are threatening to go on indefinite strike as of 10 February . . .[restrict]unless management end the de-facto division of the company into Tripoli-based and Benghazi-based operations.
In a joint announcement on Saturday following a meeting, the pilots’ union and those representing cabin crews and ground staff said they would the action in order to end the chaotic split which, they feared, could destroy the carrier.
Libyan Airline staff in Benghazi, however, told the Libya Herald that while they had heard about the threat, as they were concerned it was the decision of staff in the west of the country and that they themselves would continue working as usual.
In January 2014, Libyan Airlines announced it would transfer its administrative headquarters to Benghazi, where the airline was first based after it was founded in 1964. The transfer started to take effect in the summer of the same year but with the political split in the country that occurred after Libya Dawn took over the capital and the destruction of Tripoli International Airport in August 2014, the entire aviation sector was caught up in the divide, with airports in the west becoming subject to the Tripoli regime while those in the east remained linked to the Thinni administration. Airlines in the country, not just Libyan Airlines, had of necessity to split their operations.
A strike by Libyan Airlines’ staff is unlikely to change that reality.
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