Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Air India aborts training schedule for Dreamliners pilots

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: With Air India deferring a training programme for pilots to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliners by a month, division between its pilots came to fore with those belonging to erstwhile Indian Airlines opposing the contention of their AI counterparts.

While the erstwhile AI pilots owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) demanded that all Boeing planes be flown by them, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) said this was "unreasonable" and contrary to the agreement reached between the two unions and the management last month.

As talks progressed between IPG leaders and Air India management in Mumbai, the erstwhile AI pilots said a comprehensive plan and a road map should be drawn up for such training programmes for all pilots of the national carrier.

But "until this road map is drawn up - we propose that the management maintain status quo; that is, pilots of erstwhile Indian Airlines fly the airplanes ordered by erstwhile Indian Airlines, and pilots of erstwhile Air India fly the aircraft ordered by erstwhile Air India."

On the other hand, the ICPA shot off a letter to AI CMD Rohit Nandan saying, "We are deeply disturbed over IPG decision to oppose ICPA pilots flying the B787 Dreamliners after an understanding was signed between ICPA, IPG, and management on this October 8."

The IPG represents around 200 pilots of the pre-merger Air India, while the ICPA, that went on a flash strike in April-May this year, represents around 1,400 pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines.

The ICPA letter came after a division bench of the Bombay High Court, hearing a petition filed by IPG, was informed by that the airline had decided to defer the B 787 training programme by a month. The matter would now come up for hearing on November 14.

Air India management also recalled the first batch of pilots who had left for Singapore and Gatwick for the training programme which was to have begun tomorrow.

Air India officials, however, said a Boeing 787 simulator would be installed in Mumbai by January end next year after which the airline would be able to launch in-house training for the Dreamliner pilots.

Duration of training would be about a week-and-a-half for pilots trained to fly a wide-body Boeing 747 or 777, while those who have been operating the Airbus type would require about three weeks, they said.

The protesting pilots, owing allegiance to the IPG which represents the cockpit crew of the erstwhile AI, have charged the management with adopting discriminatory attitude in the training schedule against them vis-a-vis their erstwhile Indian Airlines counterparts.

They have been contending that the experience of Indian Airlines pilots was less than theirs on Boeing wide-bodied planes and the management should not adopt a policy to have equal number of pilots from both the erstwhile carriers for the 787 training. Only AI pilots should be assigned duty on these new advanced aircraft, according to IPG.

The IPG petition sought a stay on the schedule issued by AI on October 20 for the proposed slots for training of pilots for the Dreamliners, which would be inducted in its fleet over the next few months.

IPG counsel Jamshed Mistry contended that such a policy, which requires assigning flight duty on a Boeing 787 aircraft to one pilot each from Air India and erstwhile Indian Airlines, is "arbitrary" and "contrary to the agreements".

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

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