Pilots Strike at Cargo Carrier Serving DHL, Amazon.com

About 250 pilots for a cargo carrier that serves DHL and Amazon.com Inc. went on strike Tuesday, just days before the peak holiday shopping season.

The pilots, who work at ABX Air, a subsidiary of Air Transport Services Group Inc., aren't flying scheduled routes this morning.

The pilots say ABX Air has been "significantly understaffed" recently, forcing pilots to work "emergency assignments" on their off time, a violation of the union contract. They are represented by the Airline Professionals Association, Teamsters Local 1224.

ABX Air President John Starkovich said Tuesday the airline is seeking a court order later Tuesday to force the pilots back to work.

"We expect the court will uphold our position that the actions taken by the union to refuse work assignments is not legal," Mr. Starkovich said in a statement.

The strikes comes as retailers enter the peak time for holiday shopping, putting extra demand on air cargo carriers to ship millions of online orders. ABX Air pilots say they operate 45 flights a day for DHL and an unspecified number for Amazon.

Air Transport Services recently signed up to fly 20 planes for Amazon's Prime Air cargo network and is already flying 35 flights a day for the online company.

Write to Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 22, 2016 08:55 ET (13:55 GMT)

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