Zimbabwe airline workers strike, flights grounded

* Air Zimbabwe pilots, cabin crew strike

* Troubled airline is loss maker

HARARE, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Workers at Zimbabwe's state-owned airline have gone on strike over pay, causing flight cancellations and leaving scores of passengers stranded, state media reported on Thursday.

The state-controlled Herald newspaper said Air Zimbabwe pilots and cabin crew walked out of work on Wednesday demanding payment of allowances that were cut off in February.

The work boycott, which left two planes abandoned on the runway at Harare International Airport, affected local and international flights, the newspaper reported.

"Air Zimbabwe, as an employer, cannot afford to pay the salaries being demanded by the pilots," the carrier's chairman, Jonathan Kadzura, told state television.

Even without the allowances, he said pilots were being paid at least $1,200 a month, a salary he called outrageously high given the state of the economy.

Air Zimbabwe is a perennial loss-maker weighed down by an ageing fleet, debt and the effects of a decade-long economic crisis in the southern African country.