Flights hit as 200 AI pilots report sick

Ministry sacks 10, derecognises guild, seals union offices

May 09, 2012 12:37 am | Updated July 11, 2016 03:10 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

Stranded Air India passengers at the Ahmedabad airport after their flight was cancelled on Tuesday.

Stranded Air India passengers at the Ahmedabad airport after their flight was cancelled on Tuesday.

With about 200 pilots reporting sick, ailing national carrier Air India was forced to cancel five international flights since Monday midnight.

Taking a serious view of the pilots' action, the Civil Aviation Ministry has sacked 10 pilots, derecognised the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) and sealed its offices. Medical teams were being sent to the homes of pilots who did not report to work, official sources said here on Tuesday.

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh termed the agitation “illegal” at a time when the cash-starved airline had only a few weeks ago received a long term Rs. 30,000 crore bailout package from the government.

“They [pilots] are reporting sick. They have not given any notice for any strike. So as per Air India management rules and regulations, action will be taken accordingly. A lot of people are against bailing out Air India anyway. And now the pilots are creating a situation where it will be difficult for us to defend it,” Mr. Singh told reporters.

Pilots, owing allegiance to the IPG, are agitating over the rescheduling of Boeing 787 Dreamliner training, claiming that it would affect their career prospects. The much-delayed delivery of Dreamliner to AI is scheduled to begin later this month.

Official sources said flights to Chicago, New York, Toronto, London and Tokyo were on and flights to Frankfurt and Paris have been combined. Similarly, flights to Hong Kong and Singapore were being operated by deploying narrow body aircraft. Air India operates nearly 50 international flights daily.

Air India Express, the budget arm of Air India that operates flights to the Middle East, also witnessed some disruptions as 44 of its pilots reported sick, forcing cancellation of eight flights since Monday midnight.

In a statement on Tuesday night, Air India said it would shortly induct the new generation, state-of-the-art Boeing 787 into its fleet.

Retracing the sequence of events, the statement said the IPG had filed a writ petition in October 2011 before the Bombay High Court, praying that Air India should not be permitted to send any pilot of erstwhile Indian Airlines for B-787 training, pending final decision on the issue of integration of seniority and career progression of the pilots of erstwhile Air India and that only erstwhile Air India pilots should be sent for training on B-787. On March 13, 2012 an interim order was passed in their favour by the Bombay High Court.

The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), the trade union of the pilots of erstwhile Indian Airlines, challenged the order of the Bombay High Court before the Supreme Court and on April 23, 2012, the apex court stayed the operation of the interim order passed by the High Court. As a consequence, Air India went ahead and scheduled the training of erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots on the Dreamliner.

“The IPG nonetheless continued to object to the decision to send erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots for B-787 training, and even while Air India was in dialogue with the IPG, a section of pilots of IPG decided to disrupt flights by proceeding on mass sick leave. The first such action by the pilots took place on Friday. Despite this extreme and unwarranted step, the management continued to maintain a dialogue with the IPG till Monday and continued to look at the issues raised by the IPG,” the statement said.

Irresponsible, says AI

Air India said the pilots “chose to deliberately damage the image and reputation of the company by disrupting flights by proceeding on mass sick leave.” The airline termed it the “most extreme and irresponsible agitation” aimed at disrupting flight schedules, inflicting inconvenience on Air India passengers.

“Air India is making efforts to operate some schedules with non-unionised category of pilots. Air India has strengthened its operational resources at major airports to assist and facilitate passengers of disrupted flights. Air India is also making efforts to accommodate disrupted flight passengers on flights of other airlines,” the statement said.

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