Air India suspends bookings for 15 days

Hundreds of passengers were stranded with the agitation by Air India executive pilots entering the fourth day on Tuesday.

The national carrier cancelled over 30 flights, including 15 from the national capital, and suspended bookings for the next 15 days.

With 600 more Air India pilots threatening to join the strike, the situation is likely to worsen.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is likely to clarify the government's point of view on the current standoff between the Air India management and the striking executive pilots at a press conference on Tuesday. The Prime Minister's Office has confirmed this.

Earlier, Secretary Civil Aviation N M Nambiar held a top-level meeting to review the situation. The prime minister's office had intervened on Monday to resolve the vexed issue but no breakthrough has yet been achieved. Patel who was in Mumbai was asked to rush to Delhi.

V K Bhalla, a senior executive pilot at Air India, meanwhile said that he saw a 'conspiracy in the stand taken by the airline management' and alleged that the managing director Arvind Jadhav's stance is "designed to help private airlines".

Talks between the management and the striking executive pilots on Monday failed to break the deadlock over the issue of cut in perks.

"About 10 domestic flights to Bangalore, Kolkata , Chennai, Guwahati, Mumbai and other west-bound destinations were cancelled besides five flights to Kabul, Kathmandu, New York, London and Chicago.The flights have been cancelled after the pilots of these flights reported sick," an airline official said.

The agitation by the pilots, who are protesting against the cut in the Productivity Linked Incentives (PIL), is likely to intensify as the executive pilots working with the airlines before its merger also joined them. This led to cancellation of AI coded early morning international flights from Delhi and Mumbai.

The senior pilots of the cash-strapped national carrier have been reporting 'sick ' for their duties, since Saturday, in protest against the management's decision to cut their perks and also full payment of the due allowances.

As per its contingency plan, Air India, which generally operates about 55 daily flights from the national capital, today decided to operate only 16 flights till afternoon. The contingency plan has been devised keeping in view the passenger load and the availability of the pilots, the official said.

About five domestic morning flights from Chennai and few others from Mumbai and Kolkata also remained cancelled.

With more pilots reporting 'sick' for their duties, Air India has suspended the booking of its flights for the next 15 days in an effort to restore normalcy and prepare a fresh roster.

"We have stopped fresh booking for the next 15 days so that we can assess the passenger load and restore normalcy of lights by preparing a fresh roster after derostering the sick pilots," the official said, adding these sick pilots would be derostered till further notice.

The second round of talks between the agitating pilots and the Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav in New Delhi on Monday remained inconclusive with both sides sticking to

Aviation ministry rules out shutdown

After speculation that Air India may suspend operations over the stalemate with the striking pilots, the Civil Aviation Ministry late on Monday night ruled out a shutdown and the airline said there will not be a situation requiring a 'lock-out'.

The ministry also appealed to the executive pilots to immediately end their strike which entered the third-day on Monday disrupting another 40 flights. The pilots of the cash-strapped airline are protesting against the cut in the Productivity Linked Incentives (PLI).

Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav said, "We are not contemplating any type of action that we lead ourselves to a situation which will require to discipline anybody on hand or a lock-out."

The ministry said the 'government support' is coming but will be linked to a proper turn-around plan including cost-cutting in revenue enhancement.

With more and more pilots reporting sick, Air India has decided to suspend flights on routes on which it lacks resources.

"We are suspending operations only on routes on which we do not have resources. We have formed a committee and that will submit its report in 10 days," said a senior airline official.

Earlier on Monday evening, sources in the airline had said the airline was planning a lockout and the national carrier's site also stopped providing tickets for any route.

Sources in the know said the airline had planned to declare a lockout from midnight but changed the decision after the prime minister's office intervened.

Air India chairman Arvind Jadhav held two meetings with the agitating executive pilots, which ended inconclusively, with the management declining to agree to their demands to reverse a decision to cut productivity-linked incentives (PLI).

The pilots' protest, however, appears to have strengthened, with more and more pilots joining the strike.

"The erstwhile Air India pilots, who had so far been operating the flights as per normal schedule began reporting sick from late evening, affecting operation of flights to west-bound destinations later tonight," said a release from Air India.

The third day of the agitation saw the cancellation of over 20 flights out of 400 flights.

The agitating executive pilots, however, say they will talk to the management only if their allowances due for the last three months are paid and the "talibani" order of an up to 50 per cent reduction in PLI and flying allowances is withdrawn.

The airline says Air India in its merged form has only 319 executive pilots, of which 157 are from domestic carrier Indian Airlines.

Last week, Air India announced a cut in PLI and flying allowances ranging from 25 to 50 per cent for over 7,000 of its 31,000 employees. The executive pilots, however, alleged that their salaries have been cut 70 per cent -- 50 per cent announced and the remaining 20 per cent hidden.

On Sunday, the management said it would form a seven-member committee comprising the executive director (finance), executive director (industrial relations), general manager (operations) and representatives of the executive pilots to examine all concerns on the PLI cut. The airline also put on hold the PLI cuts for pilots till the committee's report is out.

Additional inputs: PTI & Business Standard