Uses Boeing aircraft and services of executive pilots to continue operations; cancels only 24 flights.
ICPA is the union of 650 erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots who fly domestic and short-haul international routes.
The impact of the strike was limited to only 24 of the 125 domestic flights getting cancelled and merging nine flights, even as the Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Air India pilots, who went on strike since last night seeking higher pay, to call off their agitation. None of the international flights of the government carrier were cancelled.
“We fully support the Air India management and have extended it all powers to do whatever it takes to stop the strike without showing any mercy. We have a committee in place and no other union has any problems apart from them (ICPA), who are the highest paid in the airline,” said Vayalar Ravi, civil aviation minister.
The services of ICPA leaders, including its president A S Bhinder and general secretary Rishabh Kapur, were terminated by the management, senior airline officials said. Two other agitating pilots were also suspended. But the pilots have decided to continue with their agitation. “Come what may, we will continue with our strike. We also expect some of our executive pilots to join us,” said a member of the ICPA. The union said a section of executive pilots have joined the strike.
Air India, however, made alternative arrangements by roping in the services of 150 management or executive pilots to fly on the domestic routes and using Boeings aircrafts. “We operated Boeing in the domestic sector and short-haul international sectors. This decimated the impact of the strike. We will operate them in Dubai, Singapore and sectors otherwise operated by Indian Airlines’ Airbus aircraft,” said an Air India official, who did not want to be identified. He said a small section of the ICPA members did not join the strike and reported for duty.
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It was, however, the passengers who were on the receiving end as flights got delayed by over three hours. The airline had witnessed 12 per cent of their tickets cancelled during the day. No-frill carrier SpiceJet, in a statement, said it had directed its teams across all airports to accept and accommodate Air India passengers on request from the government carrier.
Late last night, the ICPA gave a letter to the management intimating their decision to go on a strike after the tripartite conciliation talks before the chief labour commissioner failed.
In a letter to the employees, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav called the pilots strike unreasonable. “I personally would urge the pilots, who are our family’s important members, to get back to the table and contribute to the early resolution of their issues. They need to appreciate that their demands cannot be met in isolation. I trust, they would understand that the company was not in the pink of health and there was a severe resource crunch,” said Jadhav's missive.
AIR FARE SKYROCKETS
The strike had an immediate impact on air fares on key routes such as Mumbai-Delhi and Mumbai-Bangalore. Air India carries about 15 per cent of all passengers flown on domestic sector. Till 2 pm, the government carrier operated 96 flights. Eight flights were merged and 25 flights were cancelled.
Ticket prices on certain flights on Mumbai-Delhi route almost doubled as Air India strike crippled its service. For example, tickets on Kingfisher flights to Delhi from Mumbai at 7 am and 8.10 am were sold for more than Rs 16,000. The regular price is between Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000.
Similarly, seats on Spice Jet and Jet Airways on Mumbai-Bangalore flights on Thursday morning were available for Rs 14,000. The average fare on this route is around Rs 5,500.
The chairman of Travel Agent Association, Jay Bhatia said, "Tickets on certain flights were high due to the increasing load following cancellation of Air India flights. There is just a 15-30 minutes gap in departures of some of these flights and those of Air India.''
On other routes, too, there has been an upward movement. A few tickets on Mumbai-Lucknow routes were sold for Rs 16,000 on Wednesday's IndiGo and Kingfisher flights, while normally they are sold at Rs 8,000. Tickets on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route, too, were priced higher by almost Rs 2,000 and on Wednesday, sold between Rs 5,500 and Rs 6,000. Thursday's JetLite Delhi-Patna flight was fully booked and Friday's flight ticket were priced above Rs 13,000, nearly Rs 5,000 higher than normal, Bhatia said.
On certain sectors such as Mumbai-Jodhpur, Mumbai-Udaipur, only Air India and Jet Airways operate. Tickets on these sectors were being sold for around Rs 15,000. "Sectors like Jaipur and Jodhpur always have high demand since flights to these cities are less. With Air India cancelling some of its flights, the load will be shifted to other airlines and only high-priced tickets will be available,'' said another travel agent.