Pilot strike: KFA breaks promise, not a 'single paisa credited'

This is the season of pilot unrest.

Pilots of erstwhile Air India have struck work for three days now, protesting a move to allow colleagues from erstwhile Indian Airlines to train on the 787 Dreamliners. And now, Kingfisher pilots are refusing to fly, citing non-payment of salaries.

But while the former may be just be playing to the gallery and is fast losing public sympathy, the case of Kingfisher pilots begs consideration. According to senior Kingfisher pilots, nine in ten pilots in Mumbai and at least seven of 10 in Delhi have refused to fly today, upset with the non-payment of salaries since January.

A senior pilot told Firstpost that despite Chairman Vijay Mallya’s assurances on salary payments beginning by 9 May, “not a paisa has been credited to the payroll accounts. Why should we be lied to? If he cannot run the airline, why doesn’t he shut it down?”

[caption id=“attachment_305348” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Kingfisher pilots are refusing to fly, citing non-payment of salaries AP”] [/caption]

Another difference between striking Kingfisher and AI pilots is that very few Kingfisher flights would be affected initially since “management pilots” and some of those who are being warned by the airline continue to fly and some flights are being clubbed to avoid cancellation. But on the third day of strike in AI, eighteen flights from Delhi and Mumbai were cancelled this morning and this number would grow as the strike progresses.

Air India has already sacked 26 more pilots who went on a mass sick leave leading to several flight cancellations on Wednesday as the Delhi High Court stepped in to normalise operations by restraining pilots from going on strike. But in the case of Kingfisher, there has been no word yet from the airline management on either flight cancellations or any fresh negotiations with pilots.

The senior pilot quoted earlier said Kingfisher has about 120 commanders on its rolls for 16 daily flights. Of these, about 22 A330 commanders are grounded since the airline returned these aeroplanes earlier this year. Another 16-18 are grounded because of non-completion of what is known in aviation parlance as “recency checks”.

Though the remaining, about 80 commanders are more than enough for Kingfisher to carry out its daily schedule, their refusal to fly would begin to hurt the airline once flight duty time limitations (number of hours a pilot or cabin crew can fly before mandatorily rested) kick in, in about a day or so.

The senior pilot quoted earlier said only about two flights may have been cancelled today so far.