THE AIR INDIA FIASCO

THE AIR INDIA STRIKE – INDIAN PILOT’S GUILD PERSPECTIVE

As we all are aware the Indian Pilots Guild ( IPG) the guild to which the erstwhile Air India Pilots belong to, are not flying and are abstaining from reporting for duty but very few actually know why?
IPG highly criticized for their stand in the last week or so and blamed for the loss of brand image suffered by the Maharaja. The mass media and the suffering passengers are quick to criticize the pilots for behaving in an irresponsible manner and the management shouting from the rooftop that they are being blackmailed by the pilots by resorting to this ‘strike’. This especially since it is right on the heels of a 30,000 crore rupees bailout package was passed, inconveniencing thousands of passengers, and costing Air India 10 or 20 crores a day (not to mention brand damage).
Air travel in India has been thrown into chaos and holidaymakers left stranded after more than 350 pilots called in "sick" as part of an unofficial strike. In an unusual move the Air India management sent a battalion of doctors around to the homes of the "sick" pilots to see if they were really ill. Many of them instantly dismissed - a move which has deepened the standoff between staff and bosses. Aviation authorities have so far sacked 70 pilots. Air India's problems run deep with major staffing problems and mounting debts. To add fuel to the already burning fire the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a Show cause Notice as to why their flying licenses should not be cancelled. This appears to be a completely biased and arbitrary decision obviously influenced by the management and people in power (we did not see the DGCA stepping in on even more serious issues concerning other Private Airlines.)

A Little Background:

 Air India is a state-owned flag carrier, the oldest and the largest airline of India. It is a part of the Indian government-owned Air India Limited (AIL). The airline operates a fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft serving Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. Its corporate office is located at the Air India Building at Nariman Point in South Mumbai. It is the 16th largest airline in Asia. Air India has two major domestic hubs at Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi) and Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai). An international hub at Dubai InternationalAirport is currently being planned.

For those who are not aware Air India is a new creation born out of a merger between Indian Airlines and the old Air India on February 27, 2011. But despite there now being just one company the two sets of pilots of the erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines are divided and at each other's throats. A lot of debate went into the pros and cons of the merger: 

http://capaindia.com/PDFs/Air-India-Dec-07.pdf

The media has further trivialized this agitation by calling the IPG pilots ‘spoilt brats’ who are making petty demands.

However, has anyone given a thought as to why the pilots whose statutory dues are outstanding because the Airlines pays them late and even currently are in arrears of dues, and yet they continued to fly, then why on these issues was there a face off?

Money is something they are sure the government will pay sooner or later however the other burning issues are concerned with the future of their careers which are being played around by the management.

The media was quick to criticize their demands, calling the union greedy and selfish. From a layperson’s view, the management seems to make sense – this is a new state-of-the-art aircraft, and all pilots in the merged company should have a chance to fly it, which appears to be the view. However, IPG doesn’t see it that way.

In 2005, prior to the merger, erstwhile Indian Airlines placed an order for 43 Airbus Aircraft. No order was placed for Airbus A330. In the same year Air India placed an order for 50 Boeing aircraft (23 B777 and 27 B787). The aircrafts were chosen on basis of routes flown and career projection of their pilots. The merger took place in January 2007. The 43 Airbus aircraft were delivered between 2006 and 2010 increasing the Airbus fleet to 68 aircraft. As opposed to that the current fleet strength of Boeing aircraft is only 26. Because of the separation policy, despite the merger, pilots of Indian Airlines (belonging to the Indian Commerical Pilots Association – ICPA) had access to approximately 68 Airbus aircraft for career progression purposes, whereas pilots of IPG had access to only 26 Boeing aircraft.

Indian Airlines has far more commanders (Captains) than Air India does, because commander upgrades are done within 4 or 5 years, and are time-based instead of requirement-based. Time-based upgrade policy means that no matter what, after a set period of time, the pilot will get upgraded. In comparison, requirement-based policy means that upgrades will only occur if there is requirement for another commander. Air India pays ICPA commanders higher salaries than first officers, at the expense of the company, despite the fact that these commanders are not necessary. With all the aircraft delivered, Indian Airlines has roughly 800 pilots operating 66 aircraft. In comparison, despite hiring enough pilots to operate all 50 aircrafts ordered for erstwhile AI, the IPG pilots only fly 22 aircrafts. Since Air India pilots get upgraded to commander at a later stage than their Indian Airlines counterparts, and their contract only allows them to upgrade if there is the necessity for a commander, operating less jets than expected is a severe hit to young IPG pilots’ career progression.

No integration was done by Air India from the time of merger i.e. 2007 to 2011 and therefore to avoid the human resource catastrophy and mismanagement the Dharmadhikari Committee was appointed to bring about some kind of parity between the two sets of pilots. Without waiting for any kind of decision the management suddenly out of the blue decides to issue an order to train one pilot each from Air India and Indian Airlines. This was the trigger that has caused a lot of mayhem and surprisingly the management is not even willing to acknowledge the blunder but insist that the pilots are at fault and they are causing the ex-chequer losses amounting to hundred of crores of Rupees. Is the management not accountable for the decisions they take and the consequences thereof?

The IPG feels that the management’s decision to let Indian Airlines commanders also fly the 787 is because the executive directors are Indian Airlines staff, who favors pilots of “their own airline” at the direct expense of IPG members. In addition, since Indian Airlines will produce commanders whether the combined company needs them or not, while erstwhile Air India pilots will not be upgraded unless there are actual aircraft for them to fly, it makes sense to management to send ICPA members to train for the 787. Whether or not AI management has enough sense to realize the latter reasoning is up for debate though.

Prior to merger a Wage Agreement dt 22/12/06 was signed between Air India and IPG specifically stating that till such time as the induction of 12 B787 aircraft in the fleet is completed, the conversion of Commanders onto the B 787 would be as per the line seniority from the existing erstwhile Air India fleet. This Wage Agreement was recognised as a binding agreement on Air India by virtue of the Scheme of Amalgamation dt Jan 2007 Clauses 3.8 (A) & 3.13 (e)), and, the Merger Notification. 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/26661602/Merger-Between-Air-India-and-Indian-Airlines.

The Airlines minister states that the merger of debt-ridden national carrier Air India Ltd and erstwhile Indian Airlines Ltd "caused lot of problems" as the policies of the two entities were different, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told CNN-IBN, as protests by the pilots of the national airline continued.

Apart from 787 training, the IPG have other complaints too. They complain that the ICPA’s contract is significantly better, as a result of the strikes they conducted last year. They have in fact gone as far as to say that they took inspiration from the ICPA. When Air India and Indian Airlines were separate, the contracts were very different, and pilots chose which airline they wanted based on these contracts. Air India pilots got higher salary, and they got to fly wide body jets. In comparison, Indian Airlines pilots got more time off from work, and much faster (time-based) promotions. During the strike last year, ICPA pilots were given a pay raise (to reach “pay parity”) without having to sacrifice their extra time off. In addition, they are now being able to fly the 787, a wide body jet. It is pertinent to note here that an Airbus A330, the largest aircraft ICPA has operated till date. It is also said that training ICPA pilots to fly the 787, who until now had not flown any Boeing, will take much more time and will cost significantly more than training IPG pilots to do the same job, since IPG pilots already operate 22 Boeing jets. The cost of training ICPA pilots is 1 crore, compared to a mere 30 lakhs for IPG pilots.

The question everybody is asking right now is – what should happen next? The IPG is willing to talk to the management and the civil aviation ministry. The management, on the other hand, is refusing to talk, instead demanding that the pilots return to work. The IPG is not willing to do this until the 70+ sacked pilots are reinstated.

Until talks begin, there is no end in sight for this impasse. The airline will continue to lose crores of money and pilots will still not have been paid their salaries. It is in the best interest of pilots, the government, and Air India for talks to occur as soon as possible. It is important to note that one of the demands of the aggrieved pilots is “Arrears of salary and all applicable allowances for the period from January 2007 until January 2009, arising out of the Air India Pilots’ Wage Agreement dated 22 December 2006, to be paid no later than 31 May 2012”.