New Delhi - India's second-largest private airline Jet Airways made efforts to resume normal flights Sunday after its pilots decided to end a five-day strike, officials and news reports said. Talks between the striking pilots and management ended early Sunday with an agreement to reinstate two pilots who were sacked by the company.
More than 400 of the company's pilots - a little more than half of those on Jet's rosters - had called in sick since Tuesday to protest the July sacking of their colleagues.
Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal said in a statement that an amicable agreement was reached, effective immediately.
"The airline will operate its full schedule of services on all sectors with all crew reporting for their normal rostered duties," he said.
"An amicable settlement has been reached. It was like a misunderstanding in a family," Girish Kaushik, president of the pilot's union, the National Aviators Guild, was quoted by the IANS news agency as saying.
During the five-day impasse, Jet Airways had to cancel 1,058 flights, causing inconvenience to thousands of passengers, particularly during the first two days of the walkout.
The airline operates 380 flights daily to various parts of India and abroad. According to reports in the local media, the strike cost the airline about 8 million dollars a day.
Over 150 Jet Airways flights remained cancelled on Sunday as the company said it was making efforts to restore full operations by the afternoon with pilots resuming their duties, PTI news agency reported. The airline had restored its international operations with flights leaving for Gulf countries.
