Air travellers stranded at M'lore Airport too as pilots' strike enters eighth day

Mangalore, May 15: Many passengers were stranded in Mangalore Airport too for several hours as Air India cancelled 20 international and domestic flights on Tuesday.

Sources from Mangalore office of Air India said that Mangalore-Doha-Bahrain flights have been revised following the strike.

As per the new schedule IX 819 Mangalore-Doha-Bahrain flight will take off from Mangalore on Wednesday, May 16, at 8:30 am, but will continue its journey to Bahrain after reaching Doha. The same flight on Friday will fly directly to Bahrain from Mangalore.

Meanwhile, IX 389 Mangalore - Kuwait flight, which was supposed to take off at 5:45 pm on Tuesday, May 15, also cancelled.

Air India Express flights, which were affected, also include Thiruvanthapuram-Dubai, Madurai-Mumbai and Calicut-Kuwait.

Among the 20 cancelled flights there are five flights from Mumbai. From Delhi, flights to Amritsar, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Paris and Frankfurt were cancelled.

As the stir by over 200 Air India pilots entered the eighth day on Tuesday leading to cancellation of 10 international flights, the Government said the DGCA will take action against those who have falsely reported sick and not joined work.

“We have, as part of our contingency plan, operated Delhi-Toronto, Delhi-New York routes, and hope to operate more flights tonight,” an Air India spokesperson said.

With a medical summary issued by the Aviation Ministry stating that most of the AI pilots, who called in sick, were neither found at home by doctors sent by the airline nor reported to doctors empanelled by the carrier, the Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Ajit Singh, said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will take action against them.

“I and you don't need any medical teams to ascertain they are sick. If they have reported sick but were found fit or not found at their houses as reported in the Aviation Ministry's medical summary, then the DGCA will take necessary action against them,” Mr Singh told reporters.

The pilots have been calling in sick and not reporting for duty in protest against rescheduling of training programme of Dreamliner and issues related to their career progression.

According to the medical summary, about 48 out of the 53 Delhi-based pilots who reported sick were not found at home. Their residences were found locked and their mobiles unreachable.

Nine out of 18 outstation pilots, who were staying at Hotel Hyatt, complained of bad stomach and backache but doctors found them medically fit.

Of the 53 homes visited by doctors, 12 were found locked. When doors were opened, the medical teams were given unclear information.

The Minister said the pilots have the right to go on strike, as employees may have some grievances. “They should have discussed with us, why have they chosen to go on a strike during the peak vacation season.”

Meanwhile, seven Air India unions in a letter to Mr Singh have sought an end to the standoff between pilots and the management.

Seeking Mr Singh's intervention, the AI unions of engineers, cabin crew, commercial staff, and ground staff have blamed the merger for the ongoing crises.