Thaindian News

New Delhi/Mumbai, May 31 (IANS) Air India employees will draw less in salaries for the month of May on account of the ongoing pilots strike that has led the airline to curtail its international operations, a senior Air India official said Thursday.

“May is the peak season for any airline. Generally, our employees production-linked-incentive (PLI) is highest in this season. But due to the strike, May salaries of majority of our employees in the operations side is going to tank,” the official told IANS from Mumbai.

According to the official, the employees who are hit hard by the agitation are the cabin crew (CCs), aircraft assistants (AAs), engineers and international operations staff.

The official said the employees have not yet received salaries for March and April. The salary for March was supposed to have been given by May 15.

“The delay in our two-month old salary is due to the ongoing pilots strike. As under the new arrangement no industrial dispute was supposed to have taken place until the airlines’ financial position stabilises.”

Inflight service providers say they have been the hardest hit. “Our CCs and AAs are sitting at home as there is no flight operation taking place. Our flying hours are down which will hurt our May salaries,” a cabin crew in charge (CCI), who manages the inflight services, said.

The Air India pilots’ strike continued for the 24th day Thursday, mounting the national carrier’s losses to Rs.340 crore.

“We have lost nearly Rs.330 crore on account of ticket cancellation, unused labour and bulk of Boeing 777 fleet being grounded. We expect to stabilise our operations and cut the losses to less than Rs.5 crore a day from June 2,” an Air India official told IANS in New Delhi.