Air India operations to normalise by Tuesday

New Delhi, May 7 (PTI) After a virtual shutdown of its
operations due to ten-day pilots' strike, Air India on
Saturday resumed fresh bookings but it would take two to three
days for the state-owned airline to ensure complete normalcy
in its flights.
Leaders of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association
(ICPA) that spearheaded the stir also met the airline's CMD
Arvind Jadhav and discussed the nitty-gritty of how to go
about implementing the decisions of the agreement reached
between the Association and Civil Aviation Ministry on Friday
night that led to the strike being called off.
Air India had suspended fresh bookings last week due
to the strike which also led to the cancellation of 90 per
cent of the flights across its domestic network.
Officials said the process of getting its planes,
which remained grounded for ten days, ready to fly and the
pilots and cabin crew rostered in accordance with the demands
for each flight has commenced.
"If we don't have bookings, it is not wise to fly an
empty aircraft. It might take another 36 hours to return to
the pre-strike levels", officials said, adding that normalcy
can be restored by Tuesday.
The strike resulted in an estimated loss of about Rs
160 crore as over 800 pilots, belonging to the erstwhile
Indian Airlines, struck work and were joined by their senior
colleagues
Flight operations in Kolkata returned to near normal,
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport sources said.
Out of the scheduled 22 Air India flights from Kolkata
,two flights--to Mumbai and Chennai were cancelled, airport
sources said.
Overseas flight of the airlines for London and another
for Kathmandu left as per schedule, the sources said.
The strike was called off after the government agreed
to revoke all termination and suspension orders, withdraw the
derecognition of ICPA and assured the pilots that their
demands for pay parity would be considered by the Justice
Dharmadhikari Committee on a priority basis.
The three-member 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.
The government also assured them of a probe into their
allegations of irregularities soon and the management would
take immediate steps to enhance daily utilisation of aircraft
and working hours of the cockpit crew.