Unpaid Air India pilots threaten to stop flight operations
A section of Air India pilots have threatened to stop flight operations if the airline fails to clear their overdue flight allowances immediately. They alleged that Air India had not paid them, despite having paid the salaries of other employees in full. The threat comes as yet another complication for the cash-stripped airline, whose proposed disinvestment strategy had failed to take off. Here's more.
Over 700 AI pilots might forsake their flight duties
The threat was communicated to the Air India management by the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) that represents over 700 pilots in Air India's Airbus 320 family fleet. ICPA said that since Air India had paid the pilots' salaries, they would report to office. But till such time pilots' and cabin crew's flying allowances are cleared, they would not undertake any flight operations.
ICPA: Won't tolerate being ignored any more
"The salary of a pilot in Air India only constitutes to 30%. Every month we are being ignored while the company pays the rest of the employees in full and does not pay the flying allowance to pilots and cabin crew," said the ICPA statement.
ICPA: If pilots stop working, hold management responsible
The ICPA, in its communication to the Air India management, has also sought a prompt, positive reply to its concerns about pilots not getting paid. "We will be forced to direct our members not to report for flying duties and only management should be held responsible in case of any disruption of flights," warned the ICPA, which is still awaiting a reply.
There seems to be no end to AI's financial woes
Notably, owing to a cash crunch, Air India has had a hard time paying its employees this year, and has already delayed paying salaries six times in the last seven months. Additionally, the disinvestment plan for Air India also failed to take off, thus prompting the government to revive its capital infusion plan of Rs. 980cr, that is awaiting a Parliamentary nod.
Air India board held a meeting, details unknown
Meanwhile, on Friday, the Air India board held its first meeting after the induction of ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar and Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla as independent directors. Although details about the meeting's discussions aren't known, Birla reportedly did not turn up. It's unclear whether pilots' salaries, or a disinvestment strategy, or both were discussed at the meeting.