A SUDDEN strike staged yesterday by public motor vehicle owners serving the Kagamuga International airport and Mt Hagen city routes in the Western Highlands province threw airline passengers and other members of the travelling public into total confusion and chaos.
People, who would have travelled to other provinces from Mt Hagen by air, missed their commercial flights, while in-bound passengers into Mt Hagen were stranded after the mass strike by PMV owners at 7am yesterday.
The PMV owners staged the strike to express their dissatisfaction after passengers continuously paid less PMV fair for the route. A frustrated PMV owner Kimka Max told The National at Kagamuga Airport that the strike would continue till next Monday until the authorities set and sanction a maximum PMV fare for the route.
“The PMV fare to and from Mt Hagen city and Kagamuga Airport is K1 per traveller but people have paid as low as 70 toea and below. Therefore, we are staging the strike, which would continue till Monday,” Mr Max said.
He said that travellers should know that fuel prices were increasing rapidly, while prices of spare parts for the vehicles had also skyrocketed and the owners of PMVs were not earning enough revenue.
He said that the K1 for the PMV was approved by the Provincial Transport Board but yet people were reluctant to meet that amount so the PMV owners were staging the strike.
Meanwhile, among some of the stranded passengers were school teachers, who had flown in from outside to begin classes for the new school year.
Provincial police commander chief Insp Kaiglo Ambane said he was not aware of the strike but added that passengers ought to understand the expenses PMV owners incur in running a PMV given the recent price rise in fuel and therefore, passengers should pay accordingly.