Air India pilots threaten to go on strike again over non-payment of salaries
Matching the footsteps of employees of cash strapped Kingfisher airlines, pilots of national carrier Air India also reportedly threatened to go on strike, calling for Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh's immediate intervention for payment of pending salaries and other allowances.
As per media reports, the pilots' guild has written a letter to Singh saying that the condition of the debt ridden Air India was not too different from Kingfisher, which is almost on the verge of shutdown.
However, Ajit Singh has denied of receiving any such letter and said that they were all rumours.
"See, I have not received any letter. Earlier you have shown that they have written to DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation) about duty time but there is no such letter. This time also let me see. If there is any complaint we will look into them but we have not received any letter," said Singh.
Air India employees have been constantly complaining of non-payment of their salaries and flying allowances for quite some time now.
Earlier in June, the Air India pilots had gone on strike, which almost lasted for over a month.
Their protest strike was to highlight their demands for career progression and other issues such as training of pilots from the erstwhile 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.
About 500 Air India pilots who fly international routes had been demanding their colleagues from former state-owned partner Indian Airlines should not be trained to fly Dreamliners, as it may mar the career prospects of original Air India flight crew.
The two companies, Air India and Indian Airlines were merged in 2007 but there have been problems with integration.
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