Being a weekend, coupled with the summer vacation rush, ensured that airfares continued to be beyond the reach of most fliers.
The deadlock between the Air India (AI) pilots and the management entered the fourth day on Saturday. In the bargain, passengers continued to suffer as 150 out of 200 domestic flights of AI were cancelled. Being a weekend, coupled with the summer vacation rush, ensured that airfares continued to be beyond the reach of most fliers.
On April 30, the 810 of the 850 pilots of the derecognised pilot body Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) carried on its strike despite threats of lockout and legal action. The striking pilots were, however, surprised that no efforts were being made by the aviation ministry nor the government to approach them.
“They are doing nothing to resolve the issue. We are deeply pained and disheartened,” said Capt Rishabh Kapoor, general secretary, ICPA. “We request the government to intervene as there is a huge trust deficit between the management and the union,” he said.
AI cancelled 39 flights from Mumbai and operated 12 with wide-bodied aircraft, Boeing 737 and 777. As these aircraft have bigger passenger capacity, they combined most of the flights. The flight cancellations are causing AI a daily loss of over Rs4 crore.
With the strike crippling the airline for the fourth day, passengers woes kept mounting. “I had an AI flight to Delhi in the morning at 9.30am. After I reached here, I was told that the flight has been cancelled and they gave me the refund,” said Avantika Mallik, 32, a finance executive from Delhi who was in Mumbai for a business meeting on Friday and was returning on Saturday. “Today being a weekend I am finding it difficult to find a ticket on other airlines. I am trying to get a train ticket now. Let’s see,” she said.
The airfares continued to remain three times higher than normal. For instance, a Mumbai-Kolkata ticket was available in the range of Rs21,095 to Rs55,552 while the normal ticket price is Rs7,000 upwards. Even a Mumbai-Delhi ticket that costs Rs3,500 upwards was available for Rs18,287 to Rs56,266.
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