Air India strike: About 100 pilots report sick in Delhi, Mumbai; international flights hit

A section of Air India pilots on Tuesday went on strike following the failure of talks with the national carriers' management over the Dreamliner training. About 100 pilots reported sick in New Delhi and Mumbai and 250 more are expected to join the stir.

Four Air India international flights were cancelled from Delhi and Mumbai on Tuesday after about pilots refused to join work.  The airlines domestic operations, however, were unaffected.

"Four flights - Delhi-Toronto, Delhi-Chicago, Mumbai-Newark and Mumbai-Hongkong via Delhi have been cancelled due to unavailability of pilots," an Air India spokesperson said.

Media reports said that Air India may cancel 80 flights on domestic and international routes following the stir.

"The management (Air India) on Monday completely backtracked from what had been agreed upon in the last 2-3 days. Therefore, we are left with no option but to intensify our agitation," sources said.

Disappointed over the management's attitude, some 100 odd pilots have already join the agitation and the Guild expects the number to swell to 250-300 by Tuesday, they said, indicating the flights operations could be hit severely in the coming days.

Earlier, the management held meeting with the pilots in New Delhi in its bid to defuse the crisis, arising out of the rescheduling of the dreamliners training programme.

On Saturday, a section of pilots reported sick, apparently to protest the move, resulting in the cancellation of one international flight and delaying another two by almost 16 hours.

It is understood that during their meeting on MOnday, the airline management told the pilots that they had no reasons to strike work at a time when the government had announced a bailout package for the national carriers.

The management is also said to have told the pilots to wait for a solution till the Justice D M Dharamadhikari Committee report is implemented by the government.

"No time is good for agitation. But at times things come to such a passe when agitation is the last resort to get the pending issues resolved," the Guild sources said.