AI operns severely affected on Day 2 of pilots strike

New Delhi, Apr 28 (PTI) India's national carrier Air
India operations were severely affected on Thursday with
around 80 flights being cancelled due to strike by pilots who
got some stick from the Delhi High Court which warned that
property of their trade union ICPA will be attached if they
did not return to work immediately.
The Air India management also adopted a tough posture
sacking an executive pilot Capt V K Bhalla on Thursday taking
the number of pilots terminated to seven in the last two days.
Six pilots in all were suspended with four more facing the
action.
Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi met Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and apprised him of the situation. He
later briefed a meeting of the Union Cabinet.
As the strike by the pilots defying the High Court
order entered the second day on Thursday, the state-owned
airline was forced to stop ticket bookings for the next five
days with a substantial number of 200 executive pilots joining
the agitators, with at least 69 of them reporting sick.
Passengers at several airports bore the brunt of the
strike, which is causing a daily loss of Rs four crore, since
they could not reach their destination in time even after they
were transferred to private carriers.
Air India also clubbed several flights and operated
wide-body Boeing 747 on the busy Delhi-Mumbai route to
accomodate more passengers in one go.
As the AI management moved the High Court to slap
contempt charge on the strikers, Justice Geeta Mittal issued
notices to the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA)
office bearers seeking replies as to why contempt proceedings
should not be initiated against them.
"There is no exception. If you do not comply, I have
no choice but to pass an order, including attachment of (ICPA)
property", said Justice Mittal reacting to the refusal by the
pilots to call off their strike despite her direction
on Wednesday to do so in "larger public interest."
ICPA President A S Bhinder, General Secretary Rishabh
Kapoor and Regional Secretary Amitesh Ahuja were also asked to
be present before the court on Monday.
The ICPA, which was derecognised on Wednesday and
their offices sealed by the management, is demanding a higher
fixed component in the salary package, a CBI probe into the
alleged mismanagement which has led to losses of over Rs
16,000 crore and removal of Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav
holding him responsible for the "financial mess".
Maintaining that the airline had cancelled 57 flights
on Wednesday and 81 on Thursday, a company spokesman said "the
management is open to negotiations to resolve the issues. The
pilots are part of the Air India family and we need them".
Acknowledging that 69 executive pilots have joined
the ongoing stir, he said the management has decided to
suspend all bookings over the next five days and added that
the national carrier was suffering a daily loss of Rs four
crore.
Ravi, who has taken a firm view of the situation,
came out in support of the actions taken by the airline
management against the striking pilots.
He is understood to have apprised the Cabinet of
some pending issues that arose after the merger of erstwhile
Indian Airlines with Air India and how they remained
unaddressed.