
New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Friday made public the Dharmadhikari Report and said that the demands of striking Air India pilots will be looked into only after they end their strike unconditionally. Singh also said that the ministry has set up a core panel to implement the recommendations of the Dharmadhikari report on the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India. There will be parity between the...

01:59 PM, Jun 01, 2012

New Delhi: National carrier Air India will shift to an "interim plan" to salvage its international operations that have been crippled by a 24-day-old pilots' strike. "We have finished work on our interim plan and it will be implemented from June 1. Under the new plan, several destinations where the load factors are quite low might be dropped for the time being," an Air India official told IANS. The airline...

12:47 AM, Jun 01, 2012

New Delhi: It is day 23 of the Air India pilots' strike and Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has reiterated that the pilots' demands will be considered only when they return back to work. Meanwhile, from June 1, the airline will drop seven international flights - so out of 45 flights the airline will operate only 38. The national carrier has lost over Rs 310 crores due to the strike....

10:36 AM, May 30, 2012

New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Monday constituted a four-member panel to examine Air India's route profitability, even as the strike by pilots of the national carrier continued for the 21th day, taking its losses to more than Rs 300 crore (about $55 mn). The decision came after the minister reviewed the status of flights on domestic and international routes which are non-profitable. According to a ministry official,...

01:51 AM, May 29, 2012

Mumbai: Air India board will meet in Mumbai on Monday to discuss the nearly three-week-old strike by over 200 pilots and a host of financial issues. Airline sources said the board is likely to consider the next steps to be taken to deal with the strike, spearheaded by the now derecognised Indian Pilots Guild. The airline has sacked 101 pilots and is mulling hiring new pilots to restore normalcy its...

05:34 AM, May 28, 2012

New Delhi/Mumbai: Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Friday told Air India's striking pilots that the airline may begin hiring new pilots if the 18-day-old strike continued. "We are not waiting for them, (we) can even begin hiring new pilots," the minister told after meeting some of the striking pilots. "I have told them my stand, now they need to think," Singh said. "We are now flying half the international...

01:16 AM, May 26, 2012

New Delhi: A truce between Air India management and striking pilots may be on the cards after Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Friday met the pilots. Sources told CNN-IBN that the sacked pilots may be taken back on the case-to-case basis. The Air India management is also likely to hire pilots for international operations soon. Taking a tough stand on the issue earlier, the Aviation Minister had blamed...

01:55 PM, May 25, 2012

New Delhi/Mumbai: Softening its stand, striking Air India pilots on Thursday welcomed Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh's offer to hold talks with them, indicating that they are ready to return to work if the 101 sacked pilots are reinstated. A day after Singh's fresh appeal to them to end their strike which has entered the 17th day, the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) sought an appointment with the minister to "clarify...

08:30 PM, May 24, 2012

New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Wednesday refused to comment on the leaked Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report that hinted at financial irregularities in allocating the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport to a conglomerate led by infrastructure major GMR Group. The CAG report questioned the rationale behind allowing Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the company which runs the IGI airport, to levy user charges on passengers, which...

01:32 AM, May 24, 2012

New Delhi: It's the 16th day of the Air India crisis and cracks between the airline management and the Pilots Guild getting deeper. A contempt notice was issued to Air India pilots on Wednesday. The notice said that the pilots have to reply by July 13 and if they don't join work, they'll continue in contempt till then. If their contempt is upheld after they file their reply on July...

04:22 PM, May 23, 2012

New Delhi: It's the 16th day of the Air India crisis. The cracks between the airline management and the Indian Pilots Guild seemed to have gone deeper. The Pilots Guild accused the management of indulging in financial malpractice and mismanagement that has caused the airline losses worth Rs 4,300 crore. "Mismanagement of the company's resources, hostility towards the welfare of erstwhile Air India employees and forced merger are the main...

02:16 PM, May 23, 2012

Mumbai: With no end in sight to the strike by a section of Air India pilots which entered the 15th day on Tuesday, the airline management has extended its contingency plan of curtailed operations to June 1. "The contingency plan that we have put in place has now been extended to June 1 from May 25," Air India sources told PTI in Mumbai. Besides, the bookings are being accepted only...

11:26 PM, May 22, 2012

New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Tuesday blamed Air Indias striking pilots for the airlines poor financial condition. He said that the government was doing everything to break the deadlock but the striking pilots were not ready to listen. "We are ready to discuss all the issue. Let us realise that the Air India is in a very bad financial condition. We are in the process of determining...

04:45 PM, May 22, 2012

New Delhi: The Air India crisis has entered the 15th day on Tuesday and there is still no clarity on when the pilots' strike will end. Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh met 13 Air India unions on Monday to discuss the turnaround plan and the future of the national carrier. While sources claimed that one of the requests by the unions was to reinstate the 71 sacked pilots, the Air...

08:49 AM, May 22, 2012

New Delhi/Mumbai: Air India on Monday sacked 30 more striking pilots as the agitation by over 200 pilots entered the 14th day with no signs of a resolution to end the impasse. "The services of 30 more pilots have been terminated," AI spokesperson told PTI. With this, the number of dismissed pilots owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) has gone up to 101. The AI crackdown came on...

08:42 PM, May 21, 2012