New Delhi: The Air India pilots’ stir entered the 26th day on Saturday as the national carrier’s revenue losses mounted to more than Rs 350 crore.
An Air India official said,”The loss is owing to ticket cancellation, unused labour and bulk of Boeing 777 fleet being grounded. We expect to stabilise our operations and cut the losses to less than Rs five crore a day from today.”
The Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), representing aviators of the erstwhile Air India, went on an agitation from May 8 against the move to train their counterparts from Indian Airlines on the soon-to-be-inducted Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
AI on Friday shifted to an interim plan to salvage its international operations that have been hit by the stir.
The official added, “Under the new plan, several destinations where the load factors are quite low have been dropped for now.”
Among the seven axed international destinations are Hong Kong, Osaka, Seoul and Toronto.
Fuel consumption of the affected sectors has fallen from Rs 16 crore per day to Rs six crore as bulk of the Boeing 777s remain grounded.
The official further said bookings for international destinations have also been tweaked.
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has again asked the agitating pilots to resume work so that negotiations could held.
The pilots, on the other hand, reiterated their demand of reinstatement of 101 sacked aviators and said none of their major issues were resolved by the announcement.
Singh during a news conference on Friday said April 1, 2007, had been set as the cut-off date for new pay scales and promised that senior employees would not be paid lesser than junior employees. (UNI)