Details
AI's financial mess while calling the strike “illegal”
While more than
400 Air India pilots continue to strike work for more than 40 days, the airline
management is in the process of drawing up a business plan for the future. It
includes the delivery of 27 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft over the next two
years.
At a press
conference here, Civil Aviation minister Ajit Singh insisted that the strike
was illegal. “I do not think the striking pilots want to come back to work.
They did not give any notice and declared themselves sick,'' he said adding
“the reasons for which they are striking have been addressed in the Justice
Dharmadhikari report, which they chose not to accept.''
“Today, the
situation is such that a Rs. 30,000 crore bail-out package has already been
announced and the management is now making a new business plan.''
The services of
more than 100 Air India pilots attached to the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), who
have been on strike since May 7, have been terminated.
Air India has
been suffering losses since then. Air India was in such financial mess that it
could not pay pilots, engineers, cabin crew, the Airports Authority of India
and oil companies, the Minister said.
“Just when it
had started regaining credibility, the pilots started reporting sick.''
The Minister
said he held talks with members of the Executive Pilots Association on Sunday,
but they were inconclusive. “Talks at every level have failed.''
Mr. Singh noted
that there was no decision on hiring expat pilots. “We have to do whatever the
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) mandates. If we need commanders or
co-pilots, we have to get them.''
Speaking to
reporters on the progress on land acquisition for new airports in Maharashtra,
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that in all the cases, packages were
offered and negotiations on.
“For the Navi
Mumbai airport and Mihan at Nagpur, packages are being worked out. We decided
to acquire land for a new international airport at Chakan, near Pune.''
Mr. Chavan
admitted that slum encroachment was an issue for the expansion of the Mumbai
Airport. “The land is necessary for the airport plan but we also have to be
careful as lives will be affected,'' he said.
· ‘Just when AI started regaining credibility,
pilots started reporting sick’
· Packages have been offered, negotiations are
on: Prithviraj Chavan
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article3544605.ece
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