INTRODUCTION

Air India was founded by J. R. D. Tata in July 1932 as Tata Airlines, a division of Tata
Sons Ltd. (now Tata Group). Air India is a state-owned flag carrier, the oldest and the
largest airline of India.

AIR INDIA SERVICES & CHALLENGES

Air India being owned by Indian government, is considered to be the largest airline of
India. Issues being raised at the time of strike, show the economical challenges being
faced by the pilots and the AI management. The palace in the sky is feeling like an
earthquake.
• The AI is suffering from huge losses.
• Their pilots and other employees are completely unhappy considering their pay scales
and regular delay in payment of salaries.
• The services being provided are not up to the mark as compared to other private
airlines. Considering the recent history, the company has already gone through four
strikes.
• The management is suffering from irregularities, mismanagement and corruption.

REASONS FOR STRIKE

Employees’ and ICPA perspective

 Wants govt. of India to interfere in the functionalities of AI and turn out these
airlines around
 Removal of top management and CMD Arvind Jhadhav because under his
leadership the airlines already gone through four strikes.
 Pay parity
 Gross under utilization of pilots
 30 profitable routes that has been withdrawn which the pilots want to be
reinstated.
 Better service conditions
 CBI should investigate the large scale corruption existing in the top management.

AI management perspective

 Civil Aviation Minister had said in the last week that the pilots were already paid
handsomely - Rs800 crores for 1600 pilots . Parity may be given or not, they are
still the highest paid.

 Facilities given to employees are decent though may not be the top class.
  The pilots want a raise that would put their salaries at par with a higher-paid
group that flies for the airlines. While members of the ICPA are paid largely for
how many hours they fly, others enjoy a fixed salary.

Initiatives taken by AI management to end the strike

 The management has a Plan B and it hinges on wet-leasing of aircrafts from

private airlines, along with their crew. These three-month leases come with easy
exit clauses. Airbus and Boeing planes will be rented for about $2800 an hour
and will allow Air India to transport an extra 18,000 passengers a day.

 The ministry has agreed to recognize the Indian Commercial Pilots Association
(ICPA).

 The Aviation Ministry agreed to re-hire the nine pilots who were fired during the
strike for being office-bearers of the union of pilots that was on strike.

Air India Strikes causes rail companies to run special routes

A number of travelers have suffered from the Air India pilot strike. However, one
industry’s problem is another industry’s gain. This time the industry that is gaining is the
rail industry. That is because they are running special trains on some important sectors to
handle the extra rush of passengers that they have been receiving.

How the problem got solved

Officials from government act as a bridge for discussion between the pilots and the
management. Both the sides agreed for some of the points. Some demands of the pilots
were given approval and some were kept for discussions. The 10 day old strike ended up
on May 6. The organization got approval. The pilots who were the officials of the ICPA
were hired back to work. The pay parity issue ended on being considered for discussion.
Currently Air India has managed to pull back all of its domestic operations, while grave
concerns over its Rs.40, 000 crore debt and losses of around Rs.13, 000 crore still remain.

Reasons for Recent Strike in Air India

About 25,000 Air India employees, including engineers, have gone on a

flash strike protesting against a gag order issued by the management after
Saturday's crash at Mangalore.

The striking employees are upset over the management's gag order against
speaking out in public on the Mangalore crash.

According to the engineers, an Air India flight from Bangalore to Delhi (an
Airbus 320) was asked to make a technical halt at Mangalore on May 22,
the day of an Air India plane crashed at Mangalore. It was carrying some
passengers who lost kin in the crash.

At Mangalore, there was no Air India (AI) engineer to certify it to fly out.
So a Kingfisher engineer, apparently not qualified to certify an Airbus 320,
was asked to certify the flight and did.

When this flight landed at Delhi, the AI engineers refused to recertify it.

YV Raju, general Secretary of the All India Air Engineers Association,

complained to the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) about the
incident and spoke to the media about it. But the DGCA said the news hit
the media before the complaint came to them.

Air India was upset and issued a showcause notice asking the engineer to
explain why he went to the media instead of following up with official
channels.

But Raju said as member of the association he had every right to go to

media. He also refused to talk to the management until the chargesheet
against him was withdrawn.

Meanwhile, the Air Employees Corporation Union (AECU) has joined the
strike. Its general secretary Kardiyan has also been chargesheeted.