This Article is From Jun 06, 2012
Aviation Minister on Air India pilot's strike
- I appreciate the unstinted support from all our employees in this difficult time.
- Domestic passenger carriage now 26,000 daily, as it was at the beginning of May, we intend to maintain this.
- International passengers' carriage increased to 11000 passengers daily after new schedule.
- Air India has 90 trainee pilots, 60 will be available for regular flying in some months. In six months, 90 pilots. We have also decided to recruit from international markets.
- Plans to use narrow-bodied aircrafts and connecting to Hong Kong from the first week of July; Seoul and Osaka from first week of August.
- Australia operations will commence in September.
- Our stand has been that the strike has been declared illegal by the High Court. The pilots ignored the trade union rules to give notice. We told them to come back, and they didn't.
- We're making sure we have enough resources- pilots and engineers. If they want to come back, they are welcome. But no pre-conditions.