New Delhi: Turbulence continues for Air India passengers on Day 3 of the pilots strike on Friday. Only 10 of the 850 pilots reported to work and 30 flights were cancelled since Friday morning.
Barring 10 heads of department, all Air India pilots, including the executives are part of the strike, taking the number of striking pilots to 840.
31 flights have been cancelled since Friday morning. So bad is the situation that Air India has suspended bookings for the next five days to deal with the backlog.
The civil aviation ministry though is digging in its heels – they have refused to engage with pilot associations till the strike is called off.
There is some respite for the striking pilots as the ICPA office in Delhi was desealed after the court order. The pilots association will also be moving court against it’s derecognition by the Air India management.
A total of 120 flights, mainly domestic, were cancelled on Thursday. Fares on the existing flights have shot up as seats have became scarce. Some passengers were accommodated on private airlines while others were given a refund for their tickets.
The pilots on strike have been demanding the ouster of Air India Chairman Arvind Jadhav -They also want wage parity with Indian airlines pilots.
As the strike by Air India pilots entered the third day on Friday, the national carrier drastically reduced its operation to 50 flights across its network against the regular 320 as all executive pilots joined the stir.
“Under the contingency plan, we are operating 50 flights across the network today,” an Air India official said.
From Delhi, the national carrier will be operating just 10 flights and almost an equal number from Mumbai to metro cities.
AI operating only 50 out of 320 flights today
In Mumbai, the airline has decided to use three wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft on the Bombay-Delhi-Ahmedabad-Bombay and Bombay-Ahmedabad-Bombay sector to accommodate more passengers, the official said.
AI has decided to operate four special services using Air India Express from Mumbai flying Boeing 737 on Bombay-Abu Dhabi-Bombay, Chennai-Singapore-Chennai, Cochin-Calicut-Cochin and Calicut-Dubai-Calicut routes.
Additionally, a jumbo service will operate between Bombay-Dubai-Delhi-Bombay, the spokesperson said.
With both pilots and management refusing to budge from their position, passengers continued to bear the brunt of the agitation. Most of the flyers have cancelled their tickets on Air India while some others were being accommodated in other airlines.
According to Air India spokesperson, the cash strapped national carrier is losing Rs 4 crore per day due to the strike. However, sources said, this figure might be more as the airline has liabilities towards payment of installments of new and leased aircraft and the salary of its employees.
Executive pilots also joined the agitation on Thursday and started to report sick. The management has terminated the services of seven pilots and suspended six others.
“We are extending our 100 per cent support to our agitating younger brothers in the ICPA, over 300 executive pilots have reported sick and now it is up management to take action against all 800 pilots,” said a senior pilot.
Out of 69 executive pilots, 68 had on Thursday reported sick in Delhi and at other bases.
On Thursday, the management initiated contempt of court proceedings against the pilots in the Delhi High Court but the pilots remained unfazed. Also, the conciliation talks between the management and the agitating pilots also ended in failure as both were not ready to budge from their position.
Around 800 pilots, of erstwhile Indian Airlines, associated with Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) are on strike since Tuesday midnight demanding fixed salary, removal of AI CMD and CBI probe into alleged mismanagement.