Air India: Both Ajit Singh and pilots have no real ammo

New Delhi: Is the civil aviation ministry running out of options to get wayward pilots back to work and end the 21-day old strike?

Despite some tough talk by Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, it seems his threats are largely empty ones. Reason: pilots are still workmen, and hence they do have a legal right to industrial action. As for the pilots, they know their position is weak: they neither have public support nor the ability to seriously threaten anything when Air Indiais on government life-support.

Both parties, it seems, as making threatening noises with empty guns and no bullets.

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Though the pilots have expressed a desire to return to work if all their sacked colleagues are taken back, this demand is unlikely to be met by the government in a hurry. About 424 pilots, affiliated to the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), have been reporting sick since 7 May and this has virtually crippled Air India’s international operations. The airline is now running a truncated schedule with the help of executive pilots.

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The ministry appears to be grappling with a strike without having any clear answers in sight. Since the strike - which the pilots call agitation - began three weeks ago, the ministry has routinely held out threats. These include freezing arrears in salary and allowances unless pilots return to work, shutting down international operations temporarily to prune loss-making routes, removing striking commanders from the ‘workmen’ category and hiring new pilots. But none of these threats have worked and some are anyway impractical.

A senior official in the ministry told Firstpost that removing commanders from the ‘workmen’ category was first proposed in 2009 but nothing has happened since then because it requires a change in legislation. “These things don’t happen in a hurry; any legislation change takes a lot of time. The matter is still pending with a Parliamentary Standing Committee,” this official said.

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An Indian Express report on Saturday said Civil Aviation minister Ajit Singh had held discussions with Attorney General GE Vahanvati on the matter. Under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, highly-paid pilots are currently classified along with other blue collar workers as ‘workmen’ and, therefore, nothing stops them from going on strike.

Even the threat of recruiting new pilots could turn out to be an empty one. A report in DNA on Monday points out that out of 5,000-odd unemployed pilots in the country, only 500 are jet aircraft type-rated commanders/pilots, while the rest are just holders of commercial pilots licences (CPLs). And for AI to normalise international operations, type-rated commanders are required, not CPL holders.

So even if Air India is able to hire these 500 unemployed jet aircraft type-rated commanders/pilots, they are unlikely to be given command of the aircraft straightaway.

Then, on the issue of pruning loss-making routes, several aviation experts have wondered why these flights are being operated at all. Another ministry official had said a fortnight back that long-haul flights account for a whopping Rs 5,800 crore of net loss each year for Air India!

Flights to Toronto, Chicago and two more long-haul flights do not even meet the cost of the aviation fuel needed to operate them. Of the 45 flights a day on Air India’s normal schedule, only two actually make any profit. So why is Air India keen to continue these flights when all they do is suck money, even when pilots are working normally?

The official quoted above said that due to a truncated schedule, Air India is saving Rs 5 crore in fuel costs daily!

As per the airline’s contingency plan, which is valid till June-end,it will operate 38 international flights per day instead of 45 under normal conditions. All flights to UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Singapore, Thailand and Saarc countries are being operated as per the normal schedule. The only destinations not covered under the interim schedule are: Hong Kong, Osaka, Seoul and Toronto.

Meanwhile, there is a growing buzz that Ajit Singh may hold a second round of talks with agitating pilots later on Monday. But instead of holding out empty threats, the minister needs to get these people back in the cockpit by using some slick negotiation techniques.