As the Air India pilots' strike entered the sixth day today, the airline has come up with a contingency plan to operate 106 of the 320 daily flights till Friday.
The government carrier today cancelled 90 per cent of its domestic flights and operated just 40. The carrier is estimated to have incurred revenue losses of Rs 50 crore in a week.
“Air India has scheduled to operate 106 flights on the domestic sectors per day as part of the contingency schedule, for the next few days. These include operation of flights by Alliance Air, additional flights operated with wide bodied B777 & B747 and Air India Express B737 aircraft, in addition to the regular Airbus flights, as against a normal operation of about 320 flights. The curtailed operations schedule till May 6 has been finalised,” said a release from the airline.
The contempt of court notice in the Delhi High court did not reach to any conclusion and an order is expected tomorrow. According to agencies, the Delhi High Court today asked the Air India pilots to take a decision on resuming work, saying "this strike will not see another day". "You call off the strike, we will press the management to consider your demand," said a bench of B D Ahmed and Veena Birbal while hearing contempt proceedings against the pilots who have struck work since last Tuesday.
Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi reiterated, "I have already stated there will be no talks with the pilots till they are on strike," he said.