Air India sacks 10 more pilots after strike

The court had ruled the pilots’ strike illegal and has ordered them back to work.

The state-owned airline’s spokesman Prasad Rao said that management had sought the New Delhi High Court’s intervention after nearly 150 pilots called in sick for a second day.

The pilots are protesting against unpaid salaries and the lack of opportunities to train on Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets that the airline has ordered.

Air India cancelled flights from New Delhi to Singapore, Frankfurt and New York and from Mumbai to New York today.

The striking pilots were not immediately available for comment.

The state-owned carrier operates 50 international flights and 400 domestic flights each day.

The airline sacked 10 striking pilots yesterday.

Indian Pilots Guild president Jitendra Awhad said yesterday that some of the protesting pilots had not been paid for six months.

Another of the pilots’ demands stems from the 2007 merger of Air India and the state-run domestic carrier Indian Airlines and a dispute over training on four long-haul Dreamliner aircraft which are expected to be delivered to Air India in June.