TAIPEI (XINHUA, DPA) – More than 640 flights will be cancelled from Sunday (June 23) to Friday due to an ongoing union strike against Taiwan’s Eva Airways, which is expected to affect over 100,000 passengers, the airline said.

The flight attendants’ union announced the strike last Thursday after the two sides failed to agree on a per diem allowance.

As of Saturday, more than 200 flights had been cancelled, with over 40,000 passengers affected.

Eva Air, which is one of Taiwan’s two major carriers, has pledged to help arrange flight seats for passengers or help them transfer to flights of other airlines.

Impacted flight destinations included cities in North America, Europe, South-east Asia and elsewhere.

The airline also said Saturday that it was not taking new reservations until June 29.

The strike, which has been joined by more than 1,000 employees, is impacting about half of the airline’s daily carrying capacity.

Since late Thursday, Eva Air staff have been holding sit-in protests outside the company’s headquarters in Taoyuan in northern Taiwan.

Union members said the strike was likely to be long term since management was not yielding to demands over daily allowances and other points of contention.

Taiwan’s transport ministry has established an emergency taskforce to deal with the strike.

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