Jet Airways resumes services as pilots return to work

DISPUTE RESOLVED

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Sept 14:

Chennai: The services of Jet Airways resumed after the airline’s pilots reported for duty on Sunday following reconciliation between the National Aviator’s Guild and the management. 

    However, the airline had to cancel as many as 19 flights, including 11 departures, connecting Chennai, because of the lack of passengers. The number of cancellations was high when the strike was on. 

    All international flights and majority of the domestic flights from Chennai were operated as per schedule. 

    International flights like those to Colombo were among the first to depart from the airport in the morning. 

    Domestic flight schedules are expected to become normal from Monday. A few of the services to Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad were cancelled because of a variety of reasons, including lack of bookings and the lack of aircraft due to the ripple effect caused by disruption in schedules over the last couple of days. 

    Most of the services are operated by aircraft that come from other destinations. If one service is cancelled at least four or five others will be affected. 

    Although the bookings started in the morning, not many passengers turned up to book tickets for Sunday’s services at the airport. Since, the strike was resolved only late on Saturday night not many people knew about it. The staff manning the counteres, however, discouraged passengers from cancelling their tickets. 

    All striking pilots reported to the airline’s doctor and got a certicate sating that they were fit to fly. 

    “I reported to the doctor in the morning. He certified that I am fit to fly,” said a pilot. 

    Captain Balaram, one of the four sacked pilots who have been reinstated, told reporters here that the deadlock was resolved after management gave an assurance that it would not take any unilateral decisions in the future. 

    “The committee that has been set up with five pilots and five representatives from the management will discuss other issues, including the situation that lead to the forming of union,” he added.