Boeing 787 training row escalates

The Boeing 787 training issue has pitted Air India’s two pilot unions against each other.

First, the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) threatened mass resignation and took the issue court. Now, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association, which represents ex-Indian Airlines pilots, is also threatening mass resignations.

Today, the AI management decided to defer the earlier schedule for training of pilots on the Boeing 787 plane by a month. This was after protests by IPG, representing pilots of the pre-merger Air India.

The airline's lawyers said so to the high court here; the judges are hearing a petition by the Guild challenging the management's decision to also select pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines (IA) for the Boeing 787 posts.

IPG has accused ICPA and the management of unethical collusion to dilute the promotion chances of their members. ICPA has said IPG is reneging on an earlier stance to let ex-IA pilots fly the Boeing 787.

“There are 850 erstwhile IA pilots who are now demanding a NOC (for quitting) from the management and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation if there is no career progression and parity implemented in this month, and any action on our part should not be construed against us,” ICPA general secretary Rishabh Kapur wrote in a letter to airline chairman Rohit Nandan, indicating willingness to quit the airline.

Kapur said the management should not succumb to IPG's pressure tactics and should honour the decision (on training) taken in a joint meeting last month. ICPA says the meeting had agreed to depute pilots equally from both streams for the training.

“If anybody is facing discrimination it is the IA pilots,” Kapur said, demanding they be paid a fixed flying allowance for 80 hours a month, like the IPG members. ICPA members get paid for the number of hours flown and the IPG gets a fixed allowance for 80 hours.

ICPA has also questioned why AI pilots seemed to have no problems with expatriate pilots. “How come only when the pilots of erstwhile IA are allowed to fly, their (AI) careers are hampered?” an ICPA member asked.

An IPG member said their consent at the earlier meeting to ex-IA pilots flying the Boeing 787 was conditional to the management fulfilling several other demands related to career progression.

IPG has demanded that a comprehensive career progression plan for all pilots be put in place, after consultation with both unions. IPG says ex-IA pilots should be given an opportunity on the Boeing 787 only after such a plan was implemented. “In the interim, we propose that the management maintain status quo,” it said.