?I?ve paid anywhere between R7 lakh and R8 lakh for my family holiday in the US. I can either risk losing that or spend R2 lakh more for re-booking on another airline,? a senior executive with a MNC, who refused to be identified, said while showing the tickets of the Mumbai to Newark flight AI-191, which was one of the seven flights cancelled on Wednesday.
The national carrier cancelled flights as 200 pilots did not report to work from Tuesday without informing the airline management. The strike continued on Wednesday, so did passengers? miseries.
?We have been asked to either wait till operations normalise or collect refund after 7-8 days,? the executive, who is accompanied by by his wife and three children, said. ?I?m still undecided on what to do, as either way I stand to lose a lot of money and the government won?t come to my aid.?
Air India?s international flights for Wednesday night and Thursday morning were on schedule but unsure of its operations. ?It is very difficult to say what will happen,? a spokesperson of the airline said. ?We are doing whatever we can to make sure these flights operate by getting in management pilots and we will update the passengers accordingly.?
Some passengers fear losing their visas to fly back home.?We got requests from few people whose visas are getting expired and we have re-booked them on partner airlines and for some, we paid for their tickets on other airlines,? said an AI ground staff at Mumbai?s Chattrapati Shivaji International airport. ?Priority for re-booking is being given for foreign nationals, particularly those whose visas expire in the next few days. Since it is peak season, we are struggling to re-book everybody,? he added.
Indian passengers, meanwhile, are left struggling to fend for themselves. ?We have found tickets at higher prices, but Air India says refunds will take time,? said another passenger booked on the AI-101 flight to New York, which was also cancelled on Tuesday. ?The ground staff told us that talks are on between the pilots and the management and operations should be back to normal in a day or two.?
However, Air India had taken a tough stand now and refrained from talking to the pilots. ?There are no talks being held between the management and the pilots as the union has been de-recognised,? said an Air India spokesperson. ?The ministry of civil aviation will directly hold talks with the pilots.?
Frequent strike by employees are not new to the national carrier, which is saddled with heavy debt and piled up losses.
?Any employees? strike in an airline is generally followed by a drop in market shares,? said Dhiraj Mathur, executive director, Pricewaterhouse Coopers India, a global audit and consultancy firm. ?This is because passengers refrain from flying that airline as they aren?t sure of whether the operations will be normal or not. Airlines overcome this by either dropping fares or spending on marketing campaigns, either way strikes are costly.?
The airline has been grappling with integration issues ever since its owner, the Indian government, decided to merge Indian Airlines with Air India in 2007. International Pilots Guild, representing pilots from erstwhile Air India, took to strike after Indian Airlines pilots represented by the Indian Commercial Pilots Association were selected for training to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. AI chose them after Supreme Court directed them.
The government?s tough stand has put the pilots on the wrong foot even as they chose to continue with their strike despite the Delhi High Court restrained IPG from strike and observed the agitation as illegal and causes ?irrecoverable loss to Air India?, news agencies reported Wednesday. The court also denied sick leaves to pilots until further notice and has also sought a reply from the IPG in two weeks.
?We don?t want the passengers to suffer,? said Jitendra Ahwad, IPG?s representative. ?At this juncture we can give up 99% of our demands but the management also has to take one step forward.?