AI defers pilot training to stave off strike

Mumbai: Air India on Wednesday deferred for a month a training programme for pilots selected to fly the soon-to-be inducted Boeing 787 Dreamliners in a bid to pacify a section of disgruntled pilots who threatened to go on strike.

"We have deferred the training schedule for a month. Now, the first batch would be imparted the training at Singapore in December and not in November as decided earlier," an Air India official said.

The airline also informed the Bombay High Court that the training schedules which were due to start on Thursday have been postponed.

According to the official, the airline would seek to resolve the crisis within this period.

Talks were held between Air India Express, the low cost international subsidiary of the flag carrier, and representatives of the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) at the company's headquarters here, according to the official.

The trouble started when 64 pilots, 32 from the IPG and 32 from the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), the union of former Indian Airlines pilots, were selected to undergo Boeing 787 training in Singapore.

But 100 pilots of the IPG, that represents 300 pre-merger pilots of Air India, threatened to resign over alleged discrimination by the airline management.

"We, the loyal employees of Air India working for past several years, feel cheated by the management's unfair and discriminatory decisions, leading to a complete stall of our career progression," the IPG said in a letter to Air India's chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan Oct 29.

The letter sought a no-objection certificate (NOC) to enable those pilots to resign who had not been selected to undergo the training.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliners are set to be inducted in the fleet from December.

The IPG's letter claims a collusion between the ICPA, which represents 1,400 pilots, and the management in bringing about an artificial pilot shortage by transferring some of the IPG pilots to Air India Express.

On the other hand, the ICPA has questioned IPG's "bias" against their own colleagues while not objecting to foreign pilots flying their aircraft.

"How come only when the ICPA pilots are allowed to fly, their (IPG pilots') careers are hampered?" an ICPA official asked.