The Delhi High Court on Wednesday restrained Air India pilots from going on strike or disrupting airline schedules.

This follows the Air India management filing a suit in the Delhi High Court against the action of a section of pilots. Some Air India pilots went on sudden leave, disrupting normal flight operations for the third day.

The airline cancelled six flights on Wednesday, including the Mumbai-Newark return service, Mumbai- New Jersey and the Mumbai-Jeddah flights. In addition, five flights from Delhi to Singapore, JFK (New York), Chicago and Toronto were also cancelled.

The management today sacked 10 more pilots, who had gone on sudden leave. They are agitating against the management's decision to allow pilots of the erstwhile Indian (Airlines) to train on the Boeing 787 aircraft, the Dreamliner. The management derecognised the Indian Pilots Guild, an apex body of Air India pilots, on Tuesday and sealed their offices in Delhi and Mumbai. The airline is also sending medical teams to the residence of pilots to check on their health.

Official sources indicated that in the last three days, at least 10 international flights had been cancelled as a result of the agitation. Apart from causing inconvenience to passengers, the airline is seeing a 25-30 per cent decline in daily revenues. Its daily earnings from international operations are down to Rs 9 crore now from Rs 15 crore.

Travel agents said that the bookings of all West-bound flights of Air India were stopped from Tuesday. Travellers say that they were not informed about the cancellations in advance.

Air India carries about 8,000 international passengers every day and operates 50 international and 400 domestic flights daily. “This is a peak travel season. With the aviation sector already in trouble, this unrest and cancellations are creating further imbalance and will lead to escalation of air fares,” said Mr Iqbal Mulla, President, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI).

>niveditag@thehindu.co.in

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