Ajit Singh hopeful about resolving Air India pilot crisis

Bangalore - Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has said conclusive talks with the Air India pilots are on and to prevent any victimisation.

Singh told media here that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is ready to hear the pilots out and reach decisive conclusions on their concerns.

"Well right after the strike, 'strike' because technically it is not a strike, they were not well. We have said that they should come without any conditions and we will very sympathetically look at them, there will be no victimisation, I said it in Parliament also," he said. 

"Now, two-and-a-half months later they are back at the same stage. Only 100 of them were sacked, only their case is there, and that also, we had said that we will constitute a committee and consider their cases one by one," he added.

A section of pilots at the Air India, who were on a 58-day strike demanding exclusive rights to fly Boeing Dreamliners, had called off their agitation on July 3, bowing to pressure from the government and on the intervention of the Delhi High Court.

 The Delhi High Court on July 3 directed the agitating pilots of Air India to end their almost two-month-long strike.

More than 400 pilots struck work to highlight their demands for career progression and other issues such as training of pilots from the erstwhile domestic flier Indian Airlines (that was merged with Air India) to fly the Boeing-787 Dreamliner aircraft, to be procured shortly that the Air India pilots have viewed as unjustified.

Air India and Indian Airlines were merged in 2007, although the integration process faced much criticism from industry experts. A federal auditor had also criticized air India's purchase of Dreamliners last year for "imposing an undue long-term financial burden".

Meanwhile commenting on the debt ridden private carrier, Kingfisher Airlines, Singh described their problems are severe, as they have often failed to adhere to certain norms set by the DGCA.

"Over last six months or little longer, they are having financial problems, the whole sector is having financial problems in a way but their problems are severe and they have been curtailing their schedule and according to the rules its for DGCA to make sure that safety is not compromised and they informed the DGCA for the schedule and they should adhere to it. If they cannot they again inform the DGCA and the passengers also, so they have done it several times before and this time also they have done it and DGCA is looking into it," said Singh.

Kingfisher, which was India's No. 2 airline until a year ago, has been the biggest victim of turbulence in India's aviation industry, where six main carriers face a total debt load of 20 billion dollars and two billion dollars in annual losses.