Pilots' strike: Government threatens to shut Air India international flights

Govt has warned that it will shut international flights of the AI if the airlines pilots strike snowballs and will take strict action against the agitating pilots.

By Saurabh Sinha, TNN | Updated: May 08, 2012, 11.27 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Erstwhile Air India pilots are threatening to strike work but the government may not be ready to play ball this time. The pilots threatened to go on strike from Monday night, minutes after their talks with the airline management and aviation ministry failed on the issue of training for the Boeing-787 Dreamliner.

The ministry, toughening its stand, has warned that it will shut international flights of the airline if the strike snowballs and will take strict action against the agitating pilots.

Sources in the 500-strong AI pilots' union, Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG), said about 100 pilots had reported sick by 9pm on Monday and the number may swell to 250 by Tuesday. Flights had already started getting affected.

This stir could cripple AI's international operations just ahead of the peak summer holiday season that begins this weekend.

AI cancelled Monday night-Tuesday morning's Mumbai-Newark, Delhi-Toronto and Delhi-Chicago flights. Among longhauls, only Delhi-New York is expected to operate early on Tuesday morning.

"Instead of delaying flights by 2-2 hours which is very irksome, we decided to cancel flights as 45 erstwhile AI pilots already reported sick by 11pm on Monday," said sources.

Dreamliner training put on hold

The latest strike threat comes from the heartburn caused among the erstwhile AI pilots after the Supreme Court backed the management's decision of sending pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines for training on the Dreamliner. IPG had been laying exclusive claim to this aircraft, saying the same was ordered by erstwhile AI - a claim rejected by the apex court.

The aviation ministry, which just weeks ago secured a mammoth Rs 42,000 crore bailout for debt-ridden AI, is fuming at this "completely unjustified" strike. "Following the SC order, erstwhile AI pilots have no right to agitate on the issue of erstwhile IA pilots being sent for training on the Dreamliner in equal numbers. About 22 pilots of AI (international) reported sick minutes after the meeting ended. We will not subject passengers to uncertainty this time and close the international operations of AI. This is not how anyone should behave after tonnes of taxpayers' money is being used to save the airline," a senior official said.

An IPG member said they were looking to secure their future as the B-787 was ordered for their career progression. "If half of those planes go to IA pilots, then our career progression gets stuck. We had prepared a draft that secured our interests but neither the management nor the ministry accepted it," the source said.

Sources said the 'enmity' between AI and IA pilots has reached such levels that the AI flights supposed to fly to Singapore last week with IA pilots (who were going there for training on the Dreamliner) was cancelled to ensure that the latter don't reach there!

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