Air India sacks six striking pilots
April 27th, 2011 - 5:27 pm ICT by ANINew Delhi, Apr 27 (ANI): Hitting back at the striking pilots, the Air India management on Wednesday sacked six leaders of the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA).
Among those whose services have been terminated are ICPA President Captain Ashim Bhinder and General Secretary Captain Rishabh Kapoor.
Declaring the strike as illegal, the management derecognised the ICPA and sealed its offices in Delhi and Mumbai.
Meanwhile, terming the strike as unfortunate, Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav said: “The striking pilots were behaving irresponsibly and were totally unconcerned about inconvenience caused to passengers.
“Why are some pilots being impatient, being irresponsible, being unreasonable, being adamant on tarnishing the image of the company and being totally unconcerned towards the convenience of our esteemed patrons and passengers”, he said in an open letter to all employees.
At least 20 Air India flights have been cancelled after some of Air India pilots affiliated to the ICPA, went on strike from midnight to press for their various demands.
Around eight flights from Delhi and eleven from Mumbai were cancelled this morning, while several others were delayed by over three hours.
The ICPA has about 700 members who use to work for Indian Airlines till it was merged with Air India in 2007.
The ICPA claims that while Air India pilots enjoy a huge fixed salary component, the same is almost minuscule for former IA pilots in 2007.
The association claims that while their entire pay package depends on the hours they fly every day, the airline has been curtailing the number of flights by 30 to 40 percent.
Meanwhile, domestic flights that are likely to be affected are those that fly from Mumbai and Delhi to Goa, Cochin, Thiruvananthapuram and Indore.
An Air India spokesperson in Mumbai said the flight to Singapore has been cancelled. Other international routes to Afghanistan, Nepal and the Middle East are also likely to be impacted. (ANI)
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Tags: air india, arvind, ashim, cochin, commercial pilots, domestic flights, general secretary, goa, icpa, inconvenience, indian airlines, indore, jadhav, mumbai, pilots association, rishabh, sacks, spokesperson, striking pilots, thiruvananthapuram