New Delhi: In a bid
to restore normalcy in its curtailed international schedule, Air India has
resumed operations to Tokyo via Shanghai and plans to launch flights to Hong
Kong, which were stopped due to the pilots' strike that entered the 50th day on
Tuesday.
As the pilots continued their hunger strike
for the third day in Delhi and Mumbai to focus on their demands relating to
career progression, Air India officials said bookings for Hong Kong were
already on and the flights would begin on July 7. Hong Kong is likely to be
connected by narrow-body Airbus A-319s.
Ignoring the strike by about 400 pilots, the
airline is going ahead with plans to start a new flight to Kuala Lumpur and
resume Seoul-Osaka operations in August and fly to Australia by September end,
the officials said, adding that the process to recruit more pilots was already
on.
Destinations
like New York, London, Paris and Frankfurt were also being served by the
airline as part of the curtailed schedule, they said.
"We
will keep adding to our operations as we get more pilots. We can't be sitting
idle because of the strike. We have cut back our global operations but have
been continuing them reliably. We will continue to add step by step to restore
our network and expand," the officials said.
Air
India's entire international network of 27 stations would not only be fully
restored, but expanded too, they said.
They
blamed the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) that has been leading the ongoing
agitation, for threatening to strike five times in the last nine months before
actually launching their action and said "unlike in other industries, a
strike threat itself results in a dip in revenue earnings as passengers go
away."
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