September 8, 2009
At least 130 flights of Jet Airways were on Tuesday cancelled from the four major metros after a large chunk of pilots failed to report for work protesting against sacking of two of their colleagues, a step termed as “sabotage of operations” by the airlines.
Passengers in Mumbai were the worst hit with 115 flights out of the total 345 failing to take off while at least 10 flights of Jet Airways and its subsidiary JetLite were cancelled in Delhi. In Chennai, six flights were cancelled, including three international, and four in Kolkata.
However, the morning flight of the private carrier from Kolkata for Dhaka took off as scheduled, Jet Airways officials said.
Hit by the crisis, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal met civil aviation secretary Madhavan Nambiar on Tuesday morning for about half-an-hour and is understood to have discussed the situation.
Ministry officials said the government was closely monitoring the situation.
Jet Airways in a press statement said that a section of the pilots have resorted to a “simulated strike by reporting sick”.
“This organised activity is a planned sabotage of operations that will damage the airline’s operations and inconvenience the travelling public,” it said.
“The least the airline people could have done is informed me that my flight was being cancelled,” complained VS Sharma who was to fly to Mumbai from Delhi. “I could have made alternative arrangements. Really, this is very, very bizarre.”
Jet Airways said all affected guests can get a full refund or rebook themselves on an alternate date without any cancellation or reissue charges, but passengers were not amused.
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The pilots have been demanding the reinstatement of two of their colleagues, who were sacked recently. The airline has some 700 pilots on its rolls.
“Regrettably, a section of the pilots who were rostered for operations have resorted to a simulated strike by reporting sick,” a Jet Airways spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday morning.
“Jet Airways is taking all steps to minimise the inconvenience to its guests. The airline will make all efforts to operate the maximum number of flights,” the statement said.
“However, perforce, some flights may have to be combined or cancelled; we will try to accommodate our guests on alternate flights.”
The newly formed National Aviators Guild, a union of some Jet Airways pilots, has called the strike. They are protesting the sacking of two of their colleagues earlier this month. The airline has declined to recognise this union.
Girish Kaushik, the president of the guild, said they had issued the mandatory 14-day notice to the airline, adding the sacking of the two pilots was an act of vendetta for starting a new union and totally unjustified.
The two sacked senior pilots, Balaraman and Sam Thomas, were told of their termination by e-mail. The pilots claim that they were given the pink slip as they were instrumental in forming the new union.
“My sincere apologies to passengers. All we want is that the management takes the two pilots back. That is our only demand,” Kaushik said. “We are not on strike. This is an individual decision by each pilot,” Kaushik said.
Jet Airways said it has had been in conciliatory talks with the union and the regional labour commissioner had warned that any strike during this period would be deemed illegal as per the Industrial Disputes Act.
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