The Delhi High Court on Wednesday restrained over 200 agitating Air India pilots from continuing their illegal strike, reporting sick and staging demonstrations.
The pilots, under the banner of Indian Pilots Guild, IPG are agitating over the rescheduling of Boeing 787 Dreamliner training and matters relating to their career progression.
Justice Reva Khetrapal issued notice to IPG and asked to reply to a plea of Air India management seeking court's intervention and also a restraint order against the striking pilots. The judge also said allowing such strike to continue will cause irreparable loss to the company as well as huge inconvenience to the passengers travelling by the national carrier. The court has fixed July 13 as the next date of hearing.
Meanwhile, Air India management on Wednesday suspended 10 more pilots. Air India spokesperson told AIR that international flights are operating normally except a flight from Delhi to Frankfurt was cancelled on Wednesday . He said the airline has put in place a contingency plan with the available pilots.
Earlier, government called the strike by Air India pilots illegal as no prior notice was given. Talking to reporters outside Parliament in New Delhi, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said the pilots should immediately call off their strike and apologize for the inconvenince caused to passengers. He said the government is ready to talk to the pilots if they have grievences. He, however, said that discussions and disruptions cannot take place at the same time.
The Court barred the striking pilots from any protest action.
As the agitation by pilots owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots Guild, IPG entered the second day, harried passengers complained of flight delays by over two hours with some having heated exchanges with airline staff in Delhi and Mumbai for not helping them.
Six international flights were cancelled on Wednesday . These were from Mumbai-Newark and those from Delhi to Singapore, New York, Chicago and Toronto.
The government, which has been talking tough, said it was ready to talk to the protesting pilots but only after they resumed duty. The cancellation of flights has been causing Air India a huge financial loss of over 10 crore rupees per day.
