 New Delhi: Air India pilots began reporting back to work on September 30 soon after they called off their five-day strike, bringing relief to thousands of harried passengers though officials said schedules would get back to normal only late night. Bookings that had been stopped on September 29 would also begin shortly, an executive director of the airline said.
"The pilots are reporting back to work, but some flights would still remain suspended," the senior official, who did not wish to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media, told reporters and expressed the hope that flight operations would be normal by night.
The airline has deployed additional manpower at major airports across the country to ease the situation. "We regret that our passengers had to face discomfort due to the pilots' strike. They can visit our counters if they have any grievances," the official said.
Air India pilots called off their five-day strike following assurances from the Civil Aviation Ministry that there would be no salary cuts. "We have received official communication from civil aviation minister (Praful Patel) and he himself has assured that there would be no salary cuts. So we immediately call off the strike," said Captain V.K. Bhalla, a senior executive pilot who was spearheading the strike.
"We have no reason to not trust the civil aviation minister. I am asking all the pilots to come back on work. We would now fully cooperate with the management. We also apologise to passengers for the inconvenience caused," Bhalla added. "Captain V.K. Bhalla is not above the government of India," he said at a crowded press conference earlier in the day.
The strike had begun with 180 Air India pilots going on sick leave to protest the cut in their productivity linked incentives. Till September 29, day four of the strike, 100 flights had been cancelled. On September 30, 28 flights, including two international, had been cancelled. Technical engineers and Mumbai-based pilots had also joined the strike, which was being led by the Delhi faction of the senior executive pilots.
The pilots had been protesting the cut in their wages, but the airline had maintained this was being done as it had reported losses of over Rs.7,200 crore since the last fiscal.
When asked about huge losses to Air India, Bhalla said the profitability of any airlines was directly related to fuel consumption. "We will advise the management on how to prevent wasteful expenditure," he said. Giving an instance, he said if Air India was sponsoring a golf tournament the pilots would suggest that it should not do so.
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