The three-hour meeting between executive pilots and civil aviation minister Ajit Singh in Mumbai on Sunday failed to resolve the issue of executive pilots being overworked in the absence of pilots from the Indian Pilots Guild (AI).
The AI is currently operating 38 international flights every day, which are being handled by the executive pilots as opposed to the 45 international flights that it was operating earlier. Even these are taxing for the executive pilots, and there has been rising discontent among them over the issue.
“We tried to impress upon Mr Singh about the stress that we are under. Flying under fatigue is against the norms as it can compromise flight safety. However, prolonged discussion on this point did not get any results. We were told that the situation would remain the same until the issue with the IPG was solved,” said an executive pilot present at the meeting requesting anonymity.
Mr Singh had last week said that the Air India management will be hiring new pilots, after 100 IPG pilots were sacked, and that the sacked pilots, if they wished to resume, would have to apply along with the new aspirants as they would not be reinstated directly.
Sources said that Mr Singh stuck to his stand, saying that IPG pilots would resume as soon as possible, which would solve the problem for all parties involved. However, IPG pilots have refused to be recruited as fresh recruits, which is sure to prolong the process.
Executive pilots are not part of the union and are hired on a contractual basis.
They have been the Air India’s chief fallback in cases of emergencies like a strike by regular pilots. However, with even the executive pilots showing a steadily rising dissent with the Air India management, the situation is expected to get worse for the airlines.