Not waiting for striking AI pilots to return, says Ajit Singh

Hyderabad/Mumbai: Hardening its stand, Government today made it clear that it is not waiting for striking Air India pilots to return to work but making plans to move ahead with fresh inductions.

Reminding the pilots and other employees that their survival was linked to Air India, he said that nobody is going to give anymore public money to the airline and “they will not survive for too long” if the company does not become

competitive.

“We are not waiting. We are making plans. If you take the pilots trained in V-737 or Airbus 320, (in) three to six months they can be trained to fly these planes,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a book release function in

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Hyderabad.

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Later in Mumbai, the minister stuck to his stand during a meeting with executive pilots who urged the minister to look at an early solution to end the strike by nearly 400 pilots owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots Guild.

“We want an early solution to the strike by the IPG pilots. We wanted the minister to resolve the issue but he stuck to his stand, saying that the pilots will have to end their strike first and the reinstatement of the 101 terminated

pilots will be taken up only on case-to-case basis,” sources told PTI after the hour-long meeting.

The meeting was held against the backdrop of the executive pilots writing a letter to Singh stating that they were stressed out and would not be able to maintain the curtailed international schedule much longer.

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The striking pilots, of whom 101 have been sacked, are protesting alleged discrimination in career progression vis-a-vis their counterparts in the erstwhile Indian Airlines.

The pilots have been on strike since 7 May.

On a two-day visit to review the Mumbai airport modernisation and upgradation work, Singh is learnt to have bluntly stated that the strike is illegal and that the agitating pilots have not heeded sane advice to return to

work.

Contending that there are “no issues” to go on strike and the pilots were “ill”, he said plans were afoot to induct and train more pilots.

He, however, said the government is ready to listen to the concerns of pilots once they return to work and address them seriously without being vindictive in any way.

“I don’t understand why they are on strike to begin with. There are no issues. Whatever few issues they had, that’s what exactly Dharmadhikari report was meant to address.

“We have already started discussions. Secondly, they did not even give any notice. So, it is not strike.

“They are just not well. They are ill. So, they are basically keeping away from work,” he said.

The minister said the High Court had directed the pilots to go back to firm. “It is illegal strike. I said even in Parliament that let them come back to work, we will listen to all their problems. Government will not be vindictive in any way. So, it seems to me that they do not want to come back to work,” he said.

Around 400 Air India pilots owing allegiance to Indian Pilots Guild(IPG) are on strike since May 7 and the services of 101 pilots have already been terminated.

PTI