The government had made it clear to the Air India domestic pilot union leaders that there was no question of agreeing to any extra interim financial benefits immediately and the futility of continuing the strike prompted the pilots to call off their 10 day-old strike as they resolved to “live to fight another day”. However, the government did tell
the pilots that it was working towards utilisation of aircraft for longer hours so that the pilots can fly more and thereby earn more. Pilot union leaders also met Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav on Saturday in an apparent move to make a fresh start after the end of hostilities. But a large number of pilots are upset and some pilots allegedly roughed up a senior Air India management official Capt. N.K. Beri — the officer on special duty to the Air India CMD — and damaged his car outside the Delhi Flying Club on Friday night. National Carrier Air India, meanwhile, is gearing up to announce low fares on Sunday to woo back passengers and will also fly wide-bodied aircraft on domestic routes like Delhi-Chennai-Bengaluru to fly as many passengers as possible per flight to gain maximum revenue. The airline said on Saturday that the flight schedule would be completely normalised by Monday although sources said it could take upto a week to restore the original flight schedules. The national carrier is also gearing up to join the global Star Alliance by the end of July 2011, even as it considers a long-term plan to deploy about 100 aircraft on lease in the years to come.
As a pilot union leader told this newspaper, “The civil aviation ministry has promised the ICPA (the pilots’ union) a ‘periodic review’ wherein grievances of the pilots relating to the functioning of the airline could be discussed. The pilots have already been told that their demands will be examined by the Justice Dharmadhikari committee and the report submitted by November. As one pilot union leader put it, “The government said it was reinstating sacked pilots and once again recognising the ICPA and we decided to live to fight another day.” Sources said it had also been made clear to the pilots that Friday was the last day of negotiations since senior ministry officials could be travelling abroad and that the government “could not afford to look silly by entering into prolonged and pointless negotiations if the pilots were not willing to see reason”.