Air India pilots strike leads to cancellations

Air India has announced the cancellation of a total of 21 international flights, including flights to London, New York, Chicago and Singapore. The airline also announced the cancellation of over 30 domestic flights.

The cancellations follow a mass strike involving senior airline pilots. Earlier in the week, when the strike was declared, Air India had assured the public that flight operations would not be disrupted.

However, after more than three days of protests, the airline has been forced to suspend ticket bookings and cancel a number of its scheduled flights. Air India says it will keep all channels of communication open, to help speedily resolve the dispute with the pilots.

The loss making airline has around 1,200 pilots on its staff. Air India recently announced that it would be cutting productivity-linked incentives offered to officers by up to 50%, to help cut its losses. The airline reported an estimated loss of $1.04 billion in the last financial year.

The proposed cut in incentives is reported to be the cause of the protests, launched since Saturday. The cut is projected to affect incentives hitherto enjoyed by over 7,000 airline officers, and the senior pilots have lodged their protests by reporting sick since the weekend.

India’s Civil Aviation Minister has expressed his concern over the ongoing strike in a statement issued to the press. The Minister has said that the government, as the owner of Air India, is far from happy over the recent developments. He added that the management of Air India would be free to take decisions deemed necessary to protect he interests of the airline, if the dispute was not quickly resolved and operations not quickly resumed.