Ia, Alliance Air Profits Grounded By Staff Strikes

Passenger traffic on Indian Airlines (IA) and its subsidiary, Alliance Air, fell by at least 10 to 20 per cent following the recent disruption in services due to the unofficial agitation by the All India Aircraft Engineers Association, an IA official said here.

Passenger load has fallen on certain sectors and it will take some time to woo them back from the private airlines, the official said.

In a communique to the civil aviation ministry, IA chairman and managing director P C Sen said that apart from financial loss and inconvenience to passengers, the strike had resulted in all sections of the airline losing credibility.

 

Though the loss due to the agitation, which began in the last week of January, had not been calculated as yet, it could be substantial, the official said.

The managements threat to close down operations had the desired effect and flights were back to normal from February 8, though the association had denied it was on agitation.

According to IA sources, during the first fortnight of January 1998, the delay rate (of its flights) was as low 2.83 per cent but went up to 4.30 per cent in the second fortnight.