Air India cancels 90% of domestic flights

As the Air India pilots' strike entered its fifth day, nearly 90 per cent of the airline's domestic flights were grounded.

However, the airline's other three sectors – Alliance Air, Air India Express and AI Wide Body (International) – remained normal.

Operations in the domestic sector were badly hit as the flight schedule for the coming week has been substantially curtailed. As of 12 noon on Sunday, the national carrier operated 19 domestic flights, out of which 13 were on time while the remaining were delayed.

For the coming week, Air India has decided to press into service the wide body aircraft Boeing 747, B-777, Air India Express' B-737 and two more aircraft obtained from external sources. The schedule has been curtailed till May 6 and the fresh schedule is up on the Air India Web site.

In order to clear up the confusion amongst passengers, Air India has also increased the number of floor walkers at major airports and increased the strength at its call centres.

Long haul unaffected

The long haul routes of Air India remain unaffected and the airline operated all its flights on the long haul routes to and from the US, the UK, Europe, South East Asia, China and the Gulf. About 50 international flights, 75 flights to the Gulf and 42 regional flights continued to operate as per schedule.

Around 850 pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines have been on strike since Wednesday demanding pay parity with their Air India counterparts.

Air India and Indian Airlines were merged four years ago.

d.das@thehindu.co.in

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