At least 11 Air India flights delayed as pilots call in sick

An Air India flight AI 115 enroute to London from Delhi was delayed by around eight hours today due to non-availability of pilots.

Almost a dozen Air India flights were delayed after a section of its commanders announced a “go-slow” to protest their exclusion from workmen category, sources said.

“Air India management had a meeting last night and insisted commanders to fly planes without proper notice”. These include 8 flights from Mumbai and 3 from Delhi.

Air India has suggested that senior pilots and engineers perform a supervisory role and can be excluded from definition of workmen.

He added that most of executive pilots are also on go slow. The airline has 1,400 pilots, of which 650 are commanders.

The go slow and flight delays are coming a day after the government announced that Ashwani Lohani will be the new chairman and managing director (CMD) of state-run Air India Ltd for a period of three years.

An AI spokesperson confirmed that two flights were delayed from Mumbai but refused to comment on the reasons behind it, saying, “We can not comment on it now”.

The pilots have decided to call in sick in protest against a decision by the Ministry of Labour and Employment to take out Pilots in Command from the category of workmen under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

The Civil Aviation Ministry had earlier asked the Labour Ministry to remove pilots and engineers from the workmen category to prevent them from going on strike.