New Delhi/Mumbai:
With no solution in sight to the crisis caused by the pilots' stir at Air India, the airline has now further curtailed its operations with limited flights till May 6. With the strike entering its fifth day today, the national carrier has also decided to put into use bigger, wide-bodied aircraft including jumbo jets for the already few domestic flights that it is currently operating.
Nearly 90 per cent of Air India's flights have been cancelled for the day as the stalemate between the 800 striking pilots and the airline's management continues with both sides refusing to budge from their respective stand.
"We are continuing with our contingency plans and will be operating 40 domestic flights across the country today. We will be utilising Boeing 737 aircraft of our subsidiary Air India Express on some of the sectors," an Air India spokesperson said.
The airline will be operating four Boeing 777's between Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Delhi-Mumbai (two services), Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai, and Mumbai-Jeddah-Mumbai, an Air India spokesperson said.
It will also operate a Boeing 747 Jumbo between Mumbai-Dubai-Delhi-Mumbai.
The airline will also fly four Boeing 737 services between Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai (two services), Mumbai-Trivandrum-Mumbai, and Chennai-Singapore-Chennai, the spokesperson added.
The CMD of Air India, Arvind Jadhav, in an SMS to the employees of the national carrier appealed to "persuade" striking pilots to return to the negotiating table and work to "save our airline."
(Read: Air India chief appeals in SMS)The Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile, slammed the Prime Minister's Office for the mess.
Dubbing the strike as a cover-up to shut down the airline, BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said, "The present dispensation of Air India has nothing to do with the Civil Aviation Ministry, it is completely being controlled by the secretariat of the PMO...The CMD of Air India directly reports to the PMO, so all my charges are towards the PMO".
(Read: BJP hits out at Prime Minister's Office for strike)The strike is causing inconvenience to thousands of Air India passengers.
"My relative is seriously ill, it was necessary for me to go. I bought airline tickets to reach faster. But it's of no use now," said an angry passenger at the Mumbai airport.
Flyers' woes have been compounded further by increased fares of other airlines who are cashing in on strike.
The pilots had yesterday said they were willing to return to work if authorities gave them an assurance that their demands regarding their pay hike would be looked into. They also said they had not yet received any formal invitation for talks from the management of Air India management.
The airline had said on Friday that pilots who didn't report to work by 5 pm would be fired. The management has sacked nine striking pilots so far; six others have been suspended. The Delhi High Court also formally initiated contempt proceedings against the pilots for ignoring its orders to end their strike. If found guilty on Monday, the pilots could be asked to spend six months in jail.
The management of the airline had declared on Thursday that no bookings for domestic flights would be taken till May 3 - an ominous sign as both the pilots and the management fail to find common ground.
At the heart of the battle is the issue of how much pilots are paid. In 2007, the government merged Air India with Indian Airlines, assuming it would lead to a more cost-efficient national carrier. The desired results are nowhere on the horizon, despite 2000 crore rupees being infused into operations.
The pilots on strike were all originally hired by Indian Airlines; they say that four years after the merger, they are still paid significantly less than the pilots who joined them from Air India. Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi is not moved by their plight. He said 1600 pilots make 800 crore rupees. "Many of them are plus two, not even graduates, and they are getting Rs. 3.8 lakh a month... I hope sense will prevail upon these people. Are they starving?'' he added.