Air India pilots blink, ready to call off strike

The 58-day strike by Air India’s Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG), one of the longest in aviation history, was called off on Tuesday. The 434 IPG pilots have agreed to return to work within 48 hours. This came after the Delhi High Court asked pilots to end the strike.

The pilots will submit letters to Air India indicating their willingness to rejoin work. The ministry and the airline management, on their part, will look at reinstating 101 sacked pilots after the court asked them to consider it “sympathetically”.

With 30% of its 45 daily international flights cancelled during the strike, Air India has lost R610 crore.

“We will operate the full schedule as and when the pilots who were on strike have been cleared to fly again after requisite medical and flying tests,” an Air India official said.

“Serious efforts have been made to settle the dispute and the counsel for the parties have assured the court that their respective clients will be extending full cooperation in this regard,” said justice Reva Khetrapal, according to a PTI report.

“The senior counsel appearing for pilots has said that her clients will immediately call off the strike and join duty in 48 hours, by giving reports expressing their willingness to join the duty,” he added. “The Air India management shall sympathetically consider grievances of the pilots, including the aspect of reinstatement of those pilots who were terminated as a consequence of their strike.”

The IPG expressed its happiness at the turn of events: “The court has made very positive observations,” said captain Tauseef Mukadam, joint secretary of the IPG.

It has said all pilots should be taken back and no distinction should be made between those sacked and others; so we are happy.”

Aviation minister Ajit Singh hoped the striking pilots would call off the strike immediately and those who are in service would join their duties within 48 hours as per their commitment to the court. “The government is committed to the welfare of the employees of Air India including pilots and, at the same time, to revive Air India to the past glory to make it the best airline,” Singh, who is out of country for a personal trip, said in a statement.

The reconciliation process will start now and the management is expected to meet the pilots on Friday.

“We have said before that the pilots can come back unconditionally,” said a senior Air India official. “As regards the pilots who have been sacked, we will look at them on a case-by-case basis.”

The IPG went on strike because they wanted Boeing 787 training to be imparted only to them. Air India had decided to include erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots represented by the Indian Commercial Pilots Association or ICPA in the training programme following a Supreme Court order in February 2012.

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