Air India mulled the option of shutting down global operations till a resolution is found to the week-long pilots’ stir which has led to a loss of over Rs150 crore.
Beleaguered Air India on Monday extended till Thursday the bar on bookings for its West-bound flights, as it mulled the option of shutting down global operations till a resolution is found to the week-long pilots’ stir which has led to a loss of over Rs150 crore.
On day seven of the agitation by over 200 pilots, 14 international flights were cancelled. The airline, which had stopped taking bookings for flights to North America and Europe till Tuesday, extended the period till May 17, airline officials said.
Complete closure of international operations was not being ruled out if the strike continued, they said, adding that these services were responsible for about 48% of the operational losses of the ailing national carrier.
The Air India Board, which met here, expressed serious concern at the mounting losses due to the strike, an officials said, adding the ongoing agitation has led to additional loss of over Rs150 crore for the airline.
Meanwhile, the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) spearheading the stir, submitted some documents to aviation ministry to back its claims on career progression issue. However, the ministry did not confirm the receipt of the documents.
The IPG has accused the airline management of not presenting a ‘clear picture’ to the government on their issues. “Some of our office-bearers met ministry officials and submitted documents regarding our claims,” said an IPG source.
Some IPG office-bearers also went to the residence of civil aviation minister Ajit Singh and submitted the same set of papers. Singh was in Parliament at that time. Clarifying that the IPG office-bearers had not gone to the minister for any meeting, sources said, “Our visit was only to submit the documents.”
When asked whether there were any back-channel parleys with the government to break the deadlock, sources said no such talks were held. “We have neither had direct nor indirect talks with the government so far. Also, there is no meeting scheduled with the minister as of now,” they said.
On Monday the national carrier was forced to to cancel as many as 14 international flights causing inconvenience to hundreds of passengers. “As the pilots are not ready to call-off their strike and join work, we have cancelled 14 international flights from Delhi and Mumbai,”an Air India official said.
—With agency inputs
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