Strikes Make A Dent In Ia Pocketour Infrastructure Bureau

Indian Airlines (IA) will lose about Rs 30-35 crore this year because of strikes by its employees, airline sources claimed.

This includes the recent air traffic controllers (ATC) strike and ATC agitation earlier this financial year.

Airline sources said the total profits of the airline for the year are estimated to be around Rs 40 crore. Of this, around Rs 10 crore is expected to be contributed by Alliance Air.

Sources said, during the recent ATC agitation, the airline had lost revenue of around Rs 50 lakh due to cancellation of a single four sector flight (IC-185), of which three sectors were fully booked.

 

They said close to Rs 22 lakh was lost on account of the Bangalore-Singapore sector and another Rs 10 lakh on the Delhi-Mumbai sector.

More losses were incurred on the Mubai-Goa sector, besides inconvenience caused to passengers. Indian Airlines had to pay for hotel stay for all the passengers, carry the passengers as dead load the second time and also shell out for parking and navigation charges for the aeroplane.

Airline sources said losses were mounting due to delays caused by their own engineers, which had resulted in a loss of image in terms of passenger inconvenience.

However, the airline is determined not to hold any discussions with engineers till normalcy is restored.

It is unwilling to act under duress and negotiations with pilots were also not held under pressure, claimed sources. Airline sources said the engineers draw between Rs 45,000-75,000 per month but were seeking higher remuneration.

The ATCs who called off their strike on February 4, have decided to resort to other methods like dharnas and relay hunger strikes, in case no solutions are reached.

Meanwhile, IA sources said while the work to rule agitation by the National Airports Authority Officers Association would not cause much delays and cancellations, it is an air safety risk. The international airport division officers had also called off their threat to go on a days casual leave.