Thousands stranded as Jet pilots go on mass sick leave

Some 20,000 air passengers in India, including hundreds of foreigners, were severely inconvenienced as nearly 400 pilots of Jet Airways went on sick leave on Tuesday, causing cancellation of nearly 200 flights and chaos at airports.

Thousands stranded as Jet pilots go on mass sick leave

Flights out of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai were in the shambles as a result of pilots' mass sick leave. Jet Airways operates 380 flights to 63 destinations in India and overseas, of which 113 domestic and 16 international flights were cancelled.

"The least the airline people could have done is informed me that my flight was being cancelled," complained VS Sharma who was to fly to Mumbai from Delhi. "I could have made alternative arrangements. Really, this is very, very bizarre."

Stranded passengers claimed rival carriers even doubled their fares arbitrarily to cash in on the sudden rush for tickets.

"I had to pay Rs 6,000 extra. This is double the amount I usually pay for my Delhi-Mumbai tickets," said Annu Kumar, an IT professional who bought a Kingfisher ticket after his Jet Airways flight to Mumbai was cancelled.

"They have clearly taken advantage of this situation," Kumar said in Delhi.

The passengers were particularly agitated after learning that the cause for the pilots' sick leave was their demand for reinstatement of two pilots sacked by the airline.

The beleaguered carrier later in the day got a reprieve when the Bombay High Court restrained its pilots from resorting to strike.

Jet Airways petitioned the high court on Tuesday for an order to restrain the National Aviators' Guild (NAG) - a union of some 400 Jet Airways pilots - from resorting to any form of strike. Jet Airways has 1,080 pilots on its rolls.

Accepting the carrier's contention, the Bombay High Court passed an order barring any form of strike by the pilots.

National carrier Air India offered help, saying it had both aircraft and crew on stand-by for immediate deployment should Jet Airways be forced to cancel more flights in the coming days.

"We are in talks with the government and Jet Airways officials," Air India spokesperson Jitendra Bhargava said.

"In the event of need to operate special flights to help stranded passengers, we would do so for which we have kept on stand-by aircraft and crew," Bhargava added.

Home Secretary GK Pillai asked all state chief secretaries to review the situation in their States with regard to the wildcat strike and invoke provisions of their respective Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).

The civil aviation ministry asked the Jet Airways management and its pilots to sort out issues through dialogue rather than inconvenience thousands of passengers.

"Our view is very clear. We have said we'd like this to be solved. Both sides should come to the table," Civil Aviation Secretary M Madhavan Nambiar told a news conference here.

"Any act on the part of pilots, which may result in last-minute cancellation of flights and harassment of passengers, would be treated as an act against the public interest," the ministry said in a statement.

Jet Airways said all affected guests can get a full refund or rebook themselves on an alternate date without any cancellation or reissue charges.

"Regrettably, a section of the pilots who were rostered for operations have resorted to a simulated strike by reporting sick," a Jet Airways spokesperson said.

"Jet Airways is taking all steps to minimise the inconvenience to its guests. The airline will make all efforts to operate the maximum number of flights," he said.

"However, perforce, some flights may have to be combined or cancelled. We will try to accommodate our guests on alternate flights."

The newly formed NAG has been asking the carrier to take back two pilots sacked last month.

NAG president Girish Kaushik said the guild had issued the mandatory 14-day notice to the airline, and added the sacking of the two pilots was an act of vendetta for being instrumental in starting a new union and was totally unjustified.

The two sacked senior pilots, Balaraman and Sam Thomas, were told of their termination by e-mail.

"My sincere apologies to passengers. All we want is that the management takes the two pilots back," Kaushik said. "We are not on strike. This is an individual decision by each pilot."

Asked if it was not too much of a coincidence that some 400 pilots reported sick at the same time, Kaushik said: "We could all have had food poisoning. That's why we all could have become ill."

Jet Airways said it was in conciliatory talks with the union and the Regional Labour Commissioner had warned that any strike during this period would be deemed illegal as per the Industrial Disputes Act.

Airline chairman Naresh Goyal also met Civil Aviation Secretary Nambiar and Director General Civil Aviation SNA Zaidi to brief them on the issue and seek their help in ensuring that the pilots report back at work.

Jet Airways sacks three more pilots
Taking a tough stand, Jet Airways on Tuesday sacked three more pilots while talks between the management and the agitating employees are yet to take place.

Earlier in the day, the government had asked the airline to sort out the issue, as 400 of its pilots went on mass sick leave, so that passengers were not put to inconvenience.

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