In a bid to end the 18-day-old strike at national carrier Air India, some of the agitating pilots met Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Friday. According to IANS, Mr Singh told the pilots that the airline may begin hiring new pilots if the strike continued.
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Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has hardened his stand on the ongoing strike by the Air India pilots. On Friday - Day 18 of the strike - Mr Singh, according to IANS, told the agitating pilots who had come to meet him that if the strike continues, the airline may begin hiring new pilots. "We are not waiting for them, (we) can even begin hiring new pilots," IANS quoted the minister as saying.
A senior official of the ministry said that the pilots came to meet the minister in their individual capacity. "They wanted to rejoin duty and said they were ready to cooperate and discuss all outstanding issues," a senior official of the ministry told PTI. "They requested the minister to give them a fair chance to explain their stand," the official added. (Read Indian Pilots' Guild statement after the meeting)
Ajit Singh reportedly advised the pilots to join back duty immediately after going through the mandatory guidelines and said none of them would be victimised.
The strike by over 400 pilots has crippled the airlines' international operations. The airline has lost around Rs. 280 crore in revenue during this period.
Meanwhile, the Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG), which has been de-recognised by Air India, said it had also offered to meet Ajit Singh and that it would immediately end the strike after the reinstatement of 101 pilots who were sacked by the airline.
The IPG had sent a letter on Thursday to Mr Singh seeking a meeting with him so that they could explain their situation to him personally. "The letter was delivered to his aide. But till now, we have not received any invite," Rohit Kapahi, committee member of the IPG, said.
The IPG also pointed out that despite the ongoing agitation, it requested one of its eight recently returned Boeing 787-trained pilots not to join the stir and instead go to Seattle May 25 to take delivery of the new aircraft that is joining the Air India fleet.
On May 17, the division bench of the Delhi High Court had upheld the order of the single-judge bench declaring the pilots' strike illegal. The division bench also said contempt proceedings should be started against the pilots.
A report by the regulatory body for airlines showed that Air India's seat occupancy for flights within India has fallen to 70%, the lowest among all domestic carriers for the month of April. Compare that to 82% for Indigo, or 77% for Jet. The 16-page report by the Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) evaluated other factors for airline performance for every month. It finds that Air India is the only airline whose on-time performance is less than 80%.
This strike also comes weeks after the government cleared a bailout of 30,000 crores for the airline. "This bailout is not without strings. They have to meet strict standards...we can't keep pouring (in) public money. This is the last chance for them to perform," Mr Ajit Singh had said in the Lok Sabha earlier this month.
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