Ajit Singh says more AI pilots can be sacked

As over 200 pilots from Air India continued to stay away from work for a second day, Minister for Civil Aviation Ajit Singh said the airline could look at downsizing pilots who refused to report for duty.

When asked what action the errant pilots could face, Singh said, “If need be, we will downsize. The management of the airline and DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Avition) are looking at it.”

The minister also defended the government’s move to dismiss 10 pilots of the union which has organised the strike.

“It is not a stern action, it is an airline. They have a responsbility to the passengers,” he told CNN IBN.

The pilots who were staying away from work had to consider how their actions would affect other employees and passengers, he said.

The government had yesterday dismissed 10 pilots, de-recognised the Indian Guild of Pilots union and sent doctors to check up on some of the pilots who had reported sick and stayed away from work.

Four international flights of Air India were cancelled from Mumbai and Delhi as the strike by protesting pilots entered the second day today.

Singh said that the pilots could have approached him if they were unhappy after their negotiations with the Air India management over the training schedule of pilots for the new Boeing Dreamliner aircraft the airline is to start getting later this year.

The pilots should also have considered that Air India presently only has 17 percent of the passenger load and should introspect on whether the course of action they are following is correct, he said.

The airline management is also mulling the option of approaching court against the pilots’ agitation, Air India sources were quoted as saying by PTI.

Air India passengers, who are suffering due to the ongoing agitation, had heated exchanges with the airline staff in Delhi alleging that they were neither cooperating nor providing any information about their flight or any alternate flights.

with inputs from PTI