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New Delhi:
The Air India management has decided to meet the executive pilots on Sunday. The decision comes in the wake of the strike by the executive pilots citing a cut in their incentive by the management.
"Air India management can address the concerns of the employees and they will meet on Sunday," Air India spokesperson Jitendra Bhargave said, adding, "Employees should realise the difficulties the airline is going through."
However, some agitating pilots in Delhi said they will meet the management only after the airline reverses the cut in incentive pay.
Earlier, the Executive Director of Air India said that not one international flight has been cancelled so far due to the strike by the executive pilots.
He further said that 11 domestic flights have been cancelled.
Giving details about the strike, Bhargave said there is no way 400 pilots will go on strike.
"I heard from some channels that our pilots were on strike and the number given on channels was 400. I had told press on Friday that there is no way 400 pilots will go on strike," Bhargave said.
This was totally incorrect and we had to send an SMS that flights are on schedule, he added.
"All Air India flights have operated as per normal schedule, including all the 58 international flights," Bhargave said.
On domestic flights, he said, "We had seven sick leaves resulting in cancellation of three flights. And till 5 pm, number of cancelled flights has gone up to 11 from three."
As per earlier reports, all the passengers of the disrupted flights were accommodated in alternate Air India flights.
In all there are 319 executive pilots in Air India, but not all of them want to take part in the strike. And out of the 319 executive pilots, 157 are from Indian Airlines.
The strike by Air India pilots witnessed a slow start on Saturday. Three of the affected are flights from Delhi to Mumbai, Lucknow and Kabul; the others were one each from Mumbai and Chennai.
On Friday, the executive pilots at Air India threatened to go on mass leave. They're upset with a decision taken earlier this week that reduces their pay. The pilots claim they were not consulted by the airline's management before their productivity-linked incentives (PLIs) were slashed by up to 50 per cent. The executive pilots are part of the management and are non-unionised. The pay cut does not apply to union pilots.
The Management claims that it has not been notified of the strike. It says that "almost all domestic flights" have operated on schedule on Saturday.
The Airline adds, "Every effort is being made to maintain normalcy even as a handful of pilots have reported sick mostly at Delhi...Air India is working out a contingency plan to ensure that passengers are not inconvenienced. Air India and Air India express aircraft will be deployed if necessary."
PTI adds: List of flights cancelled:
"Air India management can address the concerns of the employees and they will meet on Sunday," Air India spokesperson Jitendra Bhargave said, adding, "Employees should realise the difficulties the airline is going through."
However, some agitating pilots in Delhi said they will meet the management only after the airline reverses the cut in incentive pay.
Earlier, the Executive Director of Air India said that not one international flight has been cancelled so far due to the strike by the executive pilots.
He further said that 11 domestic flights have been cancelled.
Giving details about the strike, Bhargave said there is no way 400 pilots will go on strike.
"I heard from some channels that our pilots were on strike and the number given on channels was 400. I had told press on Friday that there is no way 400 pilots will go on strike," Bhargave said.
This was totally incorrect and we had to send an SMS that flights are on schedule, he added.
"All Air India flights have operated as per normal schedule, including all the 58 international flights," Bhargave said.
On domestic flights, he said, "We had seven sick leaves resulting in cancellation of three flights. And till 5 pm, number of cancelled flights has gone up to 11 from three."
As per earlier reports, all the passengers of the disrupted flights were accommodated in alternate Air India flights.
In all there are 319 executive pilots in Air India, but not all of them want to take part in the strike. And out of the 319 executive pilots, 157 are from Indian Airlines.
The strike by Air India pilots witnessed a slow start on Saturday. Three of the affected are flights from Delhi to Mumbai, Lucknow and Kabul; the others were one each from Mumbai and Chennai.
On Friday, the executive pilots at Air India threatened to go on mass leave. They're upset with a decision taken earlier this week that reduces their pay. The pilots claim they were not consulted by the airline's management before their productivity-linked incentives (PLIs) were slashed by up to 50 per cent. The executive pilots are part of the management and are non-unionised. The pay cut does not apply to union pilots.
The Management claims that it has not been notified of the strike. It says that "almost all domestic flights" have operated on schedule on Saturday.
The Airline adds, "Every effort is being made to maintain normalcy even as a handful of pilots have reported sick mostly at Delhi...Air India is working out a contingency plan to ensure that passengers are not inconvenienced. Air India and Air India express aircraft will be deployed if necessary."
PTI adds: List of flights cancelled:
- New Delhi-Kabul international flight
- Seven domestic flights from New Delhi to Mumbai, Lucknow, Aurangabad, Pune, Chennai, Srinagar and Indore-Bhopal
- In Chennai, two international flights to Colombo and Sharjah and one domestic flight to Madurai were cancelled
- In Kolkata, a flight to Aizwal was cancelled as the pilot reported sick
