Portugal's TAP pilots commence 10-day strike

Portugal's flagship carrier TAP pilots commenced a 10-day strike on Friday to demand a stake of up to 20 percent in the state-owned company when it is privatized.

At Lisbon International Airport TAP's customer service desk saw a line of flustered customers queue up to find out about next flights. Until 6 p.m. local time 72 flights had been cancelled.

"We had our flight cancelled in Porto and had to drive to Lisbon to catch another plane, but we didn't get here on time," said passenger Rejane Barros, 47, who was intending to fly to Brazil with TAP. "We only knew about the cancellation when we got to the departure hall."

The strike will end just five days before a deadline for investors to submit their binding offers to buy the airline.

The government had tried hard to persuade pilots to cancel the strike but the negotiations failed and Portugal's Pilots of Civil Aviation Syndicate (SPAC) refused to backtrack on its decision.

Around 3,000 flights are expected to be cancelled in total during the strike and 300,000 passengers will be affected.

TAP saw losses amounting to 85.1 million euros last year, and is being privatized under the 78-billion-euro bailout program Portugal signed with international lenders in May 2011 to reduce its debt load. Although the debt-laden country had a clean exit from the program three years later but the austerity policy remains to help the government meet the deficit target. Endite