B747-437B From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (10 years 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 1656 times:
Pilots of Indian Airlines have agreed to operate additional flights to replace operations affected by striking Air India pilots. This is viewed as a major blow to the AI pilots represented by the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) union. Both Air India and Indian Airlines are wholly owned by the Government of India.
Indian Airlines will initially take over Air India's daily DEL-DXB flights, but is expected to temporarily pick up additional routes as Air India hires replacement pilots and trains them.
In the meanwhile, Air India signed contracts with 4 qualified Boeing 747-400 captains and 1 qualified Airbus 310 captain to replace the pilots who are refusing to fly. The airline operated all planned flights today using management and non-union pilots.
The IPG pilots walked off the job on Friday after management refused to accede to their demands regarding flights to SARS-hit regions. Pilots represented by the IPG had earlier refused to operate flights to Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore citing health concerns. Management had agreed to these terms and flights were operated by executive and/or non-union pilots and cabin crew. The IPG is now refusing to operate flights scheduled to be flown by aircraft and/or crew who have transited through a SARS affected region in the previous 10 days. Two pilots were suspended on Friday after they refused to fly with cabin crew who had operated a flight to a SARS effected region earlier in the week. The IPG called a flash strike in protest against the suspensions.
Air India continues to operate substantially all flights using management and nonunion pilots. Flights to the Middle East and Far East may be cancelled and/or consolidated due to low demand, but operations to Europe and North America are proceeding with only minor changes.
Indianguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (10 years 3 weeks 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 1593 times:
IC pilots have been much more reasonable than AI pilots I feel. Surprising, since most of the time it would be the other way around!
The only demand that IC pilots have put forward is that they would not night halt at SIN or KUL.
But another question that arises is that why AI shoudl insist on plying these routes when the loads are as it is so poor. My source at IC tells me that most of these AI flights as it is operate with 20 to 40 pax (out of a capacity of 191 on the A310) !
Cx flyboy From Hong Kong, joined Dec 1999, 6341 posts, RR: 56 Reply 2, posted (10 years 3 weeks 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 1585 times:
I flew to Nagoya the other day with 28 passengers in an A340. I flew my 777-300 back via TPE with 70-odd passengers on the first sector and 50-odd on the second. On a 382 seater! The reason we do it is firstly to keep the scedules going, and secondly, because of the freight. There's a lot of money in freight and it is that which is keeping the routes going.
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