Almost 800 Indian Airlines pilots have gone on strike demanding the same pay and working conditions as pilots working for sister airline Air India.
The strike led to cancellation of more than 20 flights and disruption of many others by several hours.
In a swift response, Air India management declared the strike illegal and introduced sanctions against the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association, including sealing its offices in Delhi and Mumbai and sacking six ICPA leaders.
Air India responded further by calling in 150 management pilots to operate the flights, an airline official said.
No-frills carrier SpiceJet said it had directed its teams across all airports to accept and accommodate Air India passengers on request from the national carrier.
Terming the strike by its pilots as "unfortunate and ill-advised", Air India executive Arvind Jadhav said in an open letter to employees: "Why are some pilots being impatient, being irresponsible, being unreasonable, being adamant on tarnishing the image of the company.”
The ICPA strike action was taken after conciliation talks with the management failed.
ICPA general secretary, Capt Rishabh Kapur, said: "The management’s intention seems very well scripted – to buy new airplanes, upgrade the machinery at a whopping cost and kill the morale of the employees so that they agitate, and then make way to sell the airline in distress.”
By TravelMole Asia
