Outlining a forward-looking road map for the cash-strapped, loss-making national carrier Air India on Wednesday, civil aviation minister Ajit Singh announced a slew of measures, including new international routes for the national carrier, addition of more flights to the schedule and hiring of new pilots from outside to fill the gap among others.
This comes at a time when Air India has been consistently losing its market share hit by the 30-day-old pilot strike and numerous cancelled flights.
The civil aviation minister also gave a clear signal to the agitating pilots of the Indian Pilots? Guild that the doors have been completely shut on them. ?As far as we (ministry and AI ) are concerned, the strike is over. If the (striking) pilots don?t accept Dharmadhikari report, which is part of the airline?s turnaround plan, I don?t think there is any point in their coming back … If terminated pilots want to come back, they will have to apply afresh,? Singh said.
Outlining the new route plan, Singh said Air India will start two new flights to Kuala Lumpur and London and resume its Hong Kong, Osaka and Seoul flights by August. ?By November, when the winter schedule begins, AI?s international operations will be further expanded. With this, the entire original AI network of 27 stations shall not only be fully restored, but expanded also,? he said.
The airline had stopped flying to Hong Kong, Osaka, Toronto and Seoul after the strike. The airline is planning to restore that in the next few months. Hong Kong would be connected by a narrow-body Airbus A-319 from July and this service would be extended to Osaka and Seoul from August.
Civil aviation minister also ruled out any possibility of privatisation of AI. ?There is no consideration to privatise the national carrier at all,? he said.
On Boeing 787, also called as the Dreamliners, Singh said AI will soon get their deliveries. ?The aircraft will be initially used for domestic routes to train the pilots for landing and takeoffs and after about 6-8 weeks, it will start flying to long-haul routes like Mumbai to London and Australia by August and September,? he said. ?The companies (Boeing and AI) have agreed to a compensation, It will come up before the CCEA (Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs) soon, following which we will get the Boeing 787. The aircraft will help the airline to better utilise its international routes,? he said adding that there ?were sufficient number of pilots to fly the new B-787 Dreamliner planes?.
Singh said Air India will soon come out with new advertisements aimed at hiring around 100 pilots, most of the proposed recruitment drive will be for co-pilots. Meanwhile, Air India has also started the training of its 90 pilots, who will be able to fly by August. ?We’re making sure we have enough resources ? pilots and engineers to operate the new flights we have planned,? Singh said. For pilots who have been terminated, he said, ?they can apply fresh once the ads are out.?
So far, Air India has sacked 101 pilots.