Mumbai:
The crisis at state-owned carrier Air India worsened
on Wednesday. About 400 agitating pilots failed to report to work for the
second day disrupting flight schedules and leaving passengers stranded across airports in the
country.
The image of the struggling airline was further dented even as its management was in Mumbai negotiating with bankers for its financial restructuring.
Taking a cue from the civil aviation minister's tough spiel against the striking pilots on Tuesday, an angry management lashed at the truant pilots by sacking 10 more, taking the total number of sacked pilots to 20 in two days.
The mass sacking of airline pilots is in itself a record in the country. The sackings on Tuesday were essentially of the committee members of the agitating unions while the pilots who were shown the door on Wednesday were a mixed lot.
Air India also approached the Delhi High Court on Wednesday seeking court's intervention to restrain pilots from striking work. The court, after the hearing, declared the strike illegal and restrained the pilots from going on strike. Buoyed by the directive, Air India management sacked 10 pilots.
Unfazed by a resolute management, the pilots refused to relent and return to their planes. Amid the rhetoric from the management and the striking pilots, civil aviation minister Ajit Singh did some tough talking in the capital threatening Air India of a closure if the pilots do not report back to work. "Government has given them 30,000 crore of public money but that is not without strings.
They have to prove their worth. Let me point out the example of Kingfisher. They downsized and since then they are doing fine. Air India only has 17% market share. The pilots must look at this also," he said, adding that government should try and keep out of service industry and that the time for national carriers is over.
As a result of the pilot stir, the debt-ridden airline was forced to cancel seven of its international flights, two from Mumbai and five from Delhi, including flights to New York, Frankfurt and Chicago. Air India has 50 international flights daily. The number of remaining pilots, 150, was insufficient to support full schedule of the airline.
The image of the struggling airline was further dented even as its management was in Mumbai negotiating with bankers for its financial restructuring.
Taking a cue from the civil aviation minister's tough spiel against the striking pilots on Tuesday, an angry management lashed at the truant pilots by sacking 10 more, taking the total number of sacked pilots to 20 in two days.
The mass sacking of airline pilots is in itself a record in the country. The sackings on Tuesday were essentially of the committee members of the agitating unions while the pilots who were shown the door on Wednesday were a mixed lot.
Air India also approached the Delhi High Court on Wednesday seeking court's intervention to restrain pilots from striking work. The court, after the hearing, declared the strike illegal and restrained the pilots from going on strike. Buoyed by the directive, Air India management sacked 10 pilots.
Unfazed by a resolute management, the pilots refused to relent and return to their planes. Amid the rhetoric from the management and the striking pilots, civil aviation minister Ajit Singh did some tough talking in the capital threatening Air India of a closure if the pilots do not report back to work. "Government has given them 30,000 crore of public money but that is not without strings.
They have to prove their worth. Let me point out the example of Kingfisher. They downsized and since then they are doing fine. Air India only has 17% market share. The pilots must look at this also," he said, adding that government should try and keep out of service industry and that the time for national carriers is over.
As a result of the pilot stir, the debt-ridden airline was forced to cancel seven of its international flights, two from Mumbai and five from Delhi, including flights to New York, Frankfurt and Chicago. Air India has 50 international flights daily. The number of remaining pilots, 150, was insufficient to support full schedule of the airline.
The
agitating pilots belong to the Indian
Pilots' Guild (IPG), which is responsible for international flights and has
about 550 members.
The pilots started calling in sick on Tuesday after four days of hectic discussions between the management and the pilots failed on Monday. The pilots of the erstwhile Air India are demanding security of their seniority and career advancement prospects which they feel will be hampered post the merger of Indian Airlines (domestic) and Air India in 2007.
"The management did a u-turn on the template of demands it agreed with the IPG members during discussions with the pilots from Thursday to Sunday. They promised us the security of our careers in the merged airline but then went back on the agreed terms," said Capt Tauseef Mukadam, official spokesperson of the now dissolved IPG.
The pilots started calling in sick on Tuesday after four days of hectic discussions between the management and the pilots failed on Monday. The pilots of the erstwhile Air India are demanding security of their seniority and career advancement prospects which they feel will be hampered post the merger of Indian Airlines (domestic) and Air India in 2007.
"The management did a u-turn on the template of demands it agreed with the IPG members during discussions with the pilots from Thursday to Sunday. They promised us the security of our careers in the merged airline but then went back on the agreed terms," said Capt Tauseef Mukadam, official spokesperson of the now dissolved IPG.
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