Air India pilots call off strike; normal operations in 2 days

New Delhi, May 6 (PTI) Air India pilots on Friday
night called off their 10-day-old strike that resulted in an
estimated loss of over Rs 150 crore after Government agreed to
reinstate sacked and suspended pilots and look into their
demands within a time-frame.
Air India operations will commence tonight and is
expected to be normalised over the next two days, an airline
official said.
Over 800 pilots, belonging to the erstwhile Indian
Airlines and owing allegiance to the Indian Commercial Pilots
Association, as also the executive pilots, will return to work
on Friday night, Capt A S Bhinder, the association president
told reporters here after five hours of tough negotiations
with the Civil Aviation ministry officials.
Expressing happiness over the pilots ending their
stir, Indian Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said, "Their
is no ill feeling and there will be no feeling of vengeance".
Asked about the demands of the pilots, he said,
"interests of all sections of employees will be taken care of
by the Dharmadhikari Committee. ... We have received
representations from other sections of employees also and
asked them to approach the Committee".
It would submit its report in about four months, he
said.
The three-member Justice Dharmadhikari Committee, set
up to go into all merger related HR issues facing Air India
employees, has started its work and has already met a
cross-section of employees to elicit their views.
Bhinder, along with ICPA general secretary Rishabh
Kapur, said "we have called off the strike as the government
has assured us that all the pilots sacked and suspended during
the stir would be reinstated and ICPA's recognition restored".
Both the leaders, who signed the minutes of an
understanding reached with the Civil Aviation Ministry, said
the government also assured them that it would look into their
demand for probing the "irregularities that have taken place
in the airline".
A major sticking point was the pilots' demand for
compensation of 75 'fixed flying hours allowance', which their
erstwhile Air India colleagues get.
"All these demands would be considered by the
Dharmadhikari committee", Kapur said, adding that this panel
would submit its report in the next few months and government
"told us that an implementation report will be filed by
November this year".
An airline official said normalcy in flight operations
would be restored over the "next two days" because the airline
had stopped taking any bookings for over a week on most of its
flights. This had led to the cancellation of about 90 per cent
of its flights, with around 60 of its aircraft being grounded.
"If we don't have bookings, it is not wise to fly an
empty aircraft. We will now open bookings and start rostering
the pilots and other crew members. The process will take at
least two days to normalise", the officials said.
The striking pilots have been demanding that all
sackings, suspensions and transfers effected during the strike
period be revoked, ICPA's recognition be restored, the
contempt of court petition filed by Air India management be
withdrawn, a CBI probe into the alleged corruption and
mismanagement be ordered and all other issues be tackled in a
time-bound manner.
Asked about their demand for removal of AI CMD Arvind
Jadhav, Bhinder said, "our answer to this is that Government
has agreed to look into all the irregularities".
The strike by over 800 pilots owing allegiance to
the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA)had resulted in
the grounding of up to 90 per cent of the airline operations.
Air India had sacked seven pilots and suspended six
and the management.
The Delhi High Court had slapped contempt notices on
nine office bearers of the de-recognised ICPA for disobeying
its order to call off the strike.
A Civil Aviation Ministry official said the
operational loss suffered by the airline due to the strike an
was estimated to be over Rs 150 crore.