The Air India management moved a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking the initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against agitating pilots for allegedly obstructing the implementation of the court's order on the training of pilots for Dreamliner aircraft. It simultaneously sacked nine more pilots who did not report to duty on the third day of the agitation. That took the number of pilots sacked to 46.
The agitation is slowly but surely impacting passengers. Twenty three flights, including 11 domestic, of the airline's 410 daily flights got cancelled on Thursday. Air India, which operates 120 international flights daily, has already lost over Rs 15 crore in revenues during the first two days. The number is rising with more flight cancellations.
Bracing itself for a long battle with the pilots, the airline had stopped taking bookings for international flights for five days. That has now been extended till May 15 and the airline has also waived off penalties on refund, cancellations, date change and rebooking for passengers booked to travel up to May 14. More than 260 pilots have not reported for work in the past three days. That has upset the airline's schedules at a time when it had just got Cabinet clearance for a Rs 30,000-crore bailout package over a period of nine years.
PTI reported quoting Air India’s counsel Lalit Bhasin that the action of the pilots union was in violation of the April 23 and May 2 order of the apex court by which it was made clear that the training programme will be imparted in equal ratio to the pilots of pre-merger Air India and erstwhile Indian Airlines.
The 550-member Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) is opposed to allowing the erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots to operate Dreamliner planes. Also, it wants its members' career progression and time-bound promotions to be the same as those of pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines, who operate Airbus planes.
The erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines followed different policies on training and promotion. The erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots got a commander grade in six years, but it took 10 years in the erstwhile Air India. Meanwhile, the IPG pilots have decided to continue their agitation and have asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh and United Progressive Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to intervene.
“Salary is not the issue for us. We have been working without salary for the last four months. It is about career progression and promotion. Why did you decide to train both erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines pilots for flying Dreamliners in a 1:1 ratio even before the implementation of the Dharmadhikari Committee recommendations? We have tried contacting Ajit Singh and seek a meeting with him,” IPG President Jeetendra Awhad said at a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday.
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, however, was not ready to play ball and said categorically that talks could happen only if the strike was called off. “I am ready to talk to them but they will have to call off the strike first,” he said, adding that the decision to send both Airbus and Boeing pilots for training was on the basis of a Supreme Court order.
Air India has been able to arrest its falling market share in international flights to and from India. It commands a share of over 20 per cent.
Aviation analysts say pilots have been able to flex their muscles in carriers like Air India for two key reasons. One, appointment of new pilots is a lengthy process, so they cannot be replaced immediately. Second, the country faces a large shortage of commanders (of almost 500).
