Disappointed over the management's attitude, some 100 odd pilots have already join the agitation.
A section of Air India pilots today threatened to strike work from Monday following the failure of talks with the Air India management, Indian Pilots Guild sources said.
"The management (Air India) today completely backtracked from what had been agreed upon in the last 2-3 days. Therefore, we are left with no option but to intensify our agitation," sources told PTI here.
Disappointed over the management's attitude, some 100 odd pilots have already join the agitation and the Guild expects the number to swell to 250-300 by tomorrow, they said, indicating the flights operations could be hit severely in the coming days.
Earlier, the management held meeting with the pilots in New Delhi in its bid to defuse the crisis, arising out of the rescheduling of the dreamliners training programme.
On Saturday, a section of pilots reported sick, apparently to protest the move, resulting in the cancellation of one international flight and delaying another two by almost 16 hours.
It is understood that during their meeting today, the airline management told the pilots that they had no reasons to strike work at a time when the government had announced a bailout package for the national carriers.
The management is also said to have told the pilots to wait for a solution till the Justice Dm Dharamadhikari Committee report is implemented by the government.
"No time is good for agitation. But at times things come to such a passe when agitation is the last resort to get the pending issues resolved," the Guild sources said.
The IPG sources said that some sort of understanding had been reached during their meeting with ED (HR) and ED (Operations) over the last 3-4 days. "But the CMD totally backtracked at today's meeting."
The IPG pilots, who belong to the pre-merger Air India, are protesting the management's decision to train their colleagues from the erstwhile Indian Airlines on flying the long-haul Dreamliner plane, the first of which is expected to arrive later this month.
The former Indian Airlines pilots, represented by the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), had moved court earlier protesting that the airline was only sending the erstwhile Air India cockpit crew for training on the B-787s.
The Supreme Court had ruled that that the management would deploy an equal number of pilots from both erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India.
The Guild says it is not opposed to equal representation but wants a solution to the numerous problems which will arise out of the issue including IPG pilots carrier progression prospects.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court will take up further hearing on a petition filed by the ICPA on Boeing 777 training schedule.
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