New Delhi - Pilots of India's national carrier, Air India, called off a five-day strike Wednesday after government assurances of no cuts in their incentives or allowances. The leader of the pilots union, VK Bhalla, apologized to passengers for the inconvenience and thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his intervention to resolve the crisis.
"We have received official communication from the civil aviation minister [Praful Patel], and he has assured us that there would be no cuts in our incentives or allowances, so we immediately called off the strike," Bhalla told reporters in New Delhi.
"I am asking all the pilots to come back on work," Bhalla said. "We would now fully cooperate with the management."
The strike had begun Saturday with 180 Air India pilots going on sick leave to protest the management's decision to cut their performance-related bonuses by 25 to 50 per cent.
Over the past four days, hundreds of passengers have been left stranded at airports across India because of the strike.
The airline, which operates up to 200 flights daily, was forced to cancel nearly 120 flights. On Wednesday morning, 28 flights had been cancelled, the IANS news agency reported.
"We are hopeful that a semblance of normalcy will be restored by tonight and the passengers are no longer inconvenienced," Air India spokesman Jitender Bhargava said.
Another walkout in September by pilots at privately owned Jet Airways caused days of disruptions with passengers stranded at airports across the country.
India's aviation sector has been struggling with the rising cost of fuel and declining passenger traffic during the global economic slowdown.
The Federation of Indian Airlines said Indian carriers suffered losses of 100 billion rupees (2 billion dollars) in the past fiscal year ending March 31. Air India's losses alone accounted for half that figure.
The National Aviation Co Ltd, which owns Air India, has asked the federal government for a bail-out. The company delayed June salaries to its 31,000 employees by 15 days, leading to protests.
Industry analysts said Air India's huge losses stemmed partly from overstaffing and poor management. A major restructuring plan is believed to be in the works.
