400 Jet Pilots On Sick Leave, 144 Passengers To KL Stranded

[Naim 6]

September 08, 2009 13:31 PM

 

400 Jet Pilots On Sick Leave, 144 Passengers To Kuala Lumpur Stranded

 

BY P.VIJIAN

 

CHENNAI, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- A Jet Airways flight scheduled to fly to Kuala Lumpur (KL) last night was cancelled, after nearly 400 pilots of the airline went on a mass medical leave to protest against the management.

 

Two other international flights from Chennai, heading to KL and Brussels, were also cancelled.

 

Pilots of the flight to KL, scheduled to leave at 12am with 144 passengers called in sick at 11.15 pm (on Monday), forcing the flight to be cancelled.

 

The move by the pilots disrupted Jet's domestic and international operations, where nearly 20 internal flights and two overseas flights failed to take off, causing chaos in major airports.

 

The pilots went on sick leave yesterday in a sign of solidarity to protest against the airline, after two of their senior colleagues were fired about a month ago for forming a union in the company.

 

"This organised activity is a planned sabotage of operations that will damage the airline's operations and inconvenience the travelling public," said a statement from the airline.

 

A seven-hour long dialogue between the management and the pilots' representatives failed to break the deadlock yesterday.

 

Jet has announced that the passengers could get a refund or re-book themselves on any other flight.

 

India's largest private domestic airline, Jet has over 330 daily flights servicing 63 destinations, of which 19 are international.

 

-- BERNAMA

http://bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_lite.php?id=438818

[Pieter C. 5]

Jet has announced that the passengers could get a refund or re-book themselves on any other flight.

 

Boooooohhhhhhh !!!

 

Jet Airways should rebook the passengers, and not leave it to them...

Who will fork out the fare-difference in that case ?

Wasn't there a BKK/SIN flight on an almost similar schedule, on which they could have been rebooked ?

[Naim 6]

Simulated strike - looks like an easy way to bring an airline down, but to muster 400 ppl (some reports say 600) to cooperate is not an easy task.

 

===

 

Jet Airways Shares Fall After Pilot Strike Forces Cancellations

 

By Vipin V. Nair

 

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Jet Airways (India) Ltd., the nation’s largest carrier by market value, dropped the most in three months in Mumbai trading after the airline said it will cancel flights due to a strike by pilots.

 

Jet Airways fell as much as 13 percent to 221.80 rupees and changed hands at 248.5 rupees at 10:24 a.m. in the city. The shares have gained 23 percent this year compared with the benchmark Sensex index’s 67 percent surge.

 

The Mumbai-based airline will cancel 115 flights today, or a third of its daily total, after some pilots called in sick. The carrier, which posted its worst loss in at least a decade last year, said it’s in a “conciliation process” with the pilots after a labor commissioner last month ruled that any strike by the newly formed National Aviator’s Guild would be illegal.

 

“The strike has come at a time when the climate has worsened for the aviation industry,” said Mahantesh Sabarad, an analyst at Centrum Broking Ltd. in Mumbai, who has a ‘buy’ rating on the airline. “As airlines get their growth back, and more jobs are created, these problems will be taken care of.”

 

As many as 400 pilots went on sick leave late last night, the Business Standard reported, without saying where it got the information. The group is demanding that the company reinstate two pilots whose jobs were terminated without reason, it said.

 

Simulated Strike

 

Ragini Chopra, a spokeswoman for the airline, didn’t answer calls seeking comment. Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, the airline’s chief executive officer, also didn’t return calls.

 

The pilots “resorted to a simulated strike by reporting sick,” the carrier said in an e-mailed statement today. “This organized activity is a planned sabotage of operations that will damage the airline’s operations.”

 

Chief Executive Officer Naresh Goyal has slashed flights to the U.S. and other long-distance destinations to save as much as $600 million by March. Mumbai-based Jet Airways last year canceled a plan to fire as many as 1,900 employees, hurting plans to save costs.

 

The airline said Aug. 25 it got a strike notice from the National Aviator’s Guild. Three days later, the airline said in a separate statement that a labor commissioner had ruled that the union was under legal obligation not to proceed with a strike while a conciliation process was under way.

 

Jet Airways expects to reduce capacity by an additional 10 percent on top of the 30 percent it has already eliminated as slowing economic growth damps travel demand, Goyal said in June.

 

To contact the reporter on this story: Vipin V. Nair in Mumbai at Vnair12@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 8, 2009 01:31 EDT

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=atiese0fxPzA

[Y. J. Foo 0]

Wonder what will happen to these 400 pilots? They can't fire them IMO - that'll make things worse...

 

 

[Pieter C. 5]

Wonder what will happen to these 400 pilots? They can't fire them IMO - that'll make things worse...

 

Don't know the legal implications/law in India, but sure they can be sacked...

That's what Ansett did too a few decades ago (KLC took a lot of these F50 Aussie pilots)...

[Naim 6]

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009, 10:53 A.M. ET

Pilots' Standoff Grounds Jet Flights

By SANTANU CHOUDHURY and ANIRBAN CHOWDHURY

 

NEW DELHI -- Jet Airways India Ltd. canceled 169 flights Wednesday on the second day of a standoff with its pilots amid a slowdown in the local aviation market that has plunged carriers toward losses and forced them to trim capacity.

 

A passenger makes an inquiry at a deserted Jet Airways counter at the airport in Calcutta, India, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009.

 

India's second-largest domestic carrier by market share also sacked two pilots and said it will toughen its stand if the pilots don't return to work.

 

The two pilots were dismissed for disciplinary reasons, Saroj Dutta, Jet's executive director, told Dow Jones Newswires.

 

As many as 361 pilots went on sick leave Tuesday to protest against the airline's sacking of two pilots in July. The airline has a total of 760 Indian pilots.

 

The pilots' action forced Jet to cancel 186 flights Tuesday, including 32 international flights, and combine several others, affecting about 13,000 passengers.

 

The dispute with the pilots comes as Indian carriers such as Jet, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. and Air India post losses due to higher operating costs, the global economic downturn and lower consumer spending, which has hurt Indian air travel.

 

The carriers, which lost an estimated $2 billion in the year ended March 31, have reduced capacity, cut staff numbers and deferred taking delivery of Boeing Co. and Airbus planes to lower costs.

 

Air passenger traffic fell about 5% in 2008 and declined 4.9% to 24.75 million passengers during the first seven months of 2009.

 

"The standoff comes at a bad time because Jet is trying to right-size its employee strength and so laying off employees and being tough will be more difficult," said Kapil Kaul, who heads the South Asia office of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, a Sydney-based consultancy.

 

"Also, more than financial losses, it has a greater impact on Jet's reputation, especially among its customers and global partners, which will be negatively impacted," Mr. Kaul said.

 

A Jet executive, who didn't wish to be named, said some pilots returned to work Wednesday, but didn't provide any figure.

 

The canceled flights included flights to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and Muscat, the executive said, adding that flights to North America, Europe and the U.K. will continue to operate normally.

 

The pilots who took leave are part of the newly created National Aviators Guild.

 

The guild, which claims to represent more than 650 pilots, had Monday called off a planned strike after the government labor commissioner said the strike would be termed illegal under the Industrial Disputes Act.

 

Jet said Tuesday the pilots went on the "simulated strike" despite an ongoing conciliation process with airline management.

 

The Bombay High Court Tuesday issued a restraining order preventing pilots from going on sick leave after Jet Airways moved an application in the court.

 

Jet's chairman, Naresh Goyal, said the company will consider all legal options to end the standoff.

 

"If they (the pilots) do not follow the company rules and procedures, I don't think we will be left with any option and we will follow whatever the law of the land is," Mr. Goyal told CNBC-TV18 television channel.

 

"In my opinion, if they do not behave and do not follow the (High) Court order, it (the invocation of the Essential Services Maintenance Act) should be done," he said.

 

Shares of Jet fell on investors' worries over the impact of the standoff on the airline's operations.

 

Shares fell as much as 6.5% in early trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange. They recovered to trade 2.1% lower at 256.50 rupees in afternoon trading, compared with the benchmark index, which remained fairly unchanged.

 

Write to Santanu Choudhury at santanu.choudhury@dowjones.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125247468108194867.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

 

===

 

We are qualified to get jobs anywhere: Sacked Jet Airways pilot

9 Sep 2009, 1927 hrs IST, IANS

 

MUMBAI: Sam Thomas, one of the pilots sacked by Jet Airways on Wednesday said the newly formed pilots' union - National Aviators Guild (NAG) -

would not be disbanded and that they were qualified to get jobs elsewhere.

 

"We will not disband the union," Thomas told reporters here.

 

"We want to work with dignity. There is already a scarcity of trained pilots and we are qualified enough to get jobs elsewhere," he added.

 

Maintaining that the pilots were ready for talks with the management, Thomas said: "The chairman is being misguided."

 

Some 400 Jet Airways pilots, all members of the NAG, Tuesday started an agitation by reporting sick. They are demanding that Thomas and another retrenched guild member, Balaraman, be taken back.

 

"We were sent an e-mail saying our services are no more required," Thomas said.

 

"If you want to leave the organisation, you are asked to serve a notice period of six months. But your job is terminated in six minutes."

 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Transportation/Airlines-/-Aviation/We-are-qualified-to-get-jobs-anywhere-Sacked-Jet-Airways-pilot/articleshow/4991401.cms

[Pieter C. 5]

More Flights Disrupted As Jet Air Pilots Strike

 

September 9, 2009

 

India's Jet Airways said it expected to cancel more than 200 flights on Wednesday as a pilots' strike dragged into a second day, underlying uneasy relations that could hurt competitiveness.

 

More than half of the airline's 760 pilots, banned from striking without informing the airline's management in advance, have reported sick since Tuesday, forcing the cancellation of flights affecting about 13,000 passengers.

 

The cancellations included 174 domestic and 32 international flights.

 

"Till Tuesday night, 80 percent of passengers had been accommodated on other carriers and for the balance, their fares had been refunded," Chief Operating Officer Hamid Ali told reporters.

 

Jet officials said bookings had fallen around 40 percent to about 14,000 a day from a daily average of 23,000. The company would normally earn USD$4 million - USD$4.5 million a day from ticket sales, one official said.

 

The pilots reported sick en masse after talks between the management and the National Aviators' Guild (NAG), a new Jet Airways pilots' union, broke down over a demand to reinstate two sacked pilots.

 

The union said the pilots were sacked because they were trying to get management to recognise it. Jet said the two were fired for indiscipline.

 

The strike is seen as an example of touchy labour relations in a country where archaic labour laws place myriad limits on hiring and conditions for retrenchment, hurting competitiveness and leading to worker unrest.

 

A World Bank report on ease of doing business ranked India a lowly 122 of 181 countries and suggested greater flexibility in labour laws would help create more jobs and reduce poverty.

 

The pilots remained absent despite a restraining order Jet said it had obtained from the Bombay High Court late on Tuesday against the pilots' action.

 

Last year, Jet Airways, reeling under high operating costs, was forced to reinstate 800 flight attendants it sacked after angry protests by employees that drew enormous media and political attention.

 

(Reuters)

[Peter Smith 1]

Don't know the legal implications/law in India, but sure they can be sacked...

That's what Ansett did too a few decades ago (KLC took a lot of these F50 Aussie pilots)...

The '89 pilots strike...glad I was only 1 at the time!

[fendy 2]

Boooooohhhhhhh !!!

 

Jet Airways should rebook the passengers, and not leave it to them...

Who will fork out the fare-difference in that case ?

Wasn't there a BKK/SIN flight on an almost similar schedule, on which they could have been rebooked ?

i think its worded wrongly, im guessing they meant 'passengers can get themselves rebooked'

[Waiping 12]

NAG, hmm...what a name.

[Naim 6]

Jet Airways to hold talks with pilots on Friday

IANS 10 September 2009, 07:38pm IST

 

NEW DELHI: Chief labour commissioner S K Mukhopadhyay will facilitate conciliation talks between the Jet Airways and its striking pilots here Friday. As the impasse continued for the third day running, the carrier was forced to cancel 230 flights.

 

"The conciliation talks with the chief labour commissioner will be held here tomorrow," Jet Airways executive director Saroj Datta told reporters after meeting the commissioner at Shram Shakti Bhavan, the labour ministry headquarters.

 

The meeting, initially slated to have been held Thursday, had to be postponed as representatives of the pilots had not turned up for the talks, Datta said.

 

The Jet management insists that the 600 pilots, who reported sick Tuesday and went on mass leave, should provide medical certificates. The pilots, on the other hand, say they would report to work only when pilots who had been sacked were taken back.

 

A contempt petition was filed against the striking pilots late Wednesday for defying the Bombay High Court ruling that asked them not to halt work.

 

According to a Jet Airways spokesperson, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud of the Bombay High Court has directed a contempt notice to be issued to the National Aviators Guild (NAG), of which the striking pilots are members. It will be heard here Monday.

 

"Everybody is against us," Girish Kaushik, president of the National Aviators Guild (NAG), an association of Jet Airways pilots who have gone on strike, told reporters in Mumbai Thursday.

 

"There is ESMA, court restrictions. I am afraid they would now impose TADA." he said referring to the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. "Are there no laws to save us? What have our boys done?".

 

In another development, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal met Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge at Karnataka Bhawan in the capital Thursday.

 

"If there is a need of my ministry's intervention, we will do that," Kharge told reporters after the meeting.

 

The carrier's ground staff also appealed to the pilots to withdraw their agitation and "not put our future at risk".

 

"We are already going through recession. Our salaries will be delayed. The airline is already undergoing losses. The pilots cannot put our future at risk," customer care executive Jagjeet Kaur told reporters in Delhi.

 

Added Ashwani, a Jet Airways supervisor: "We appeal to the pilots to give up their agitation. Our airline is making losses and now due to the pilots' agitation, our revenue is going to other airlines. How will we get our salaries?"

 

The strike has caused nearly 700 flights to be cancelled since Tuesday and has inconvenienced over 28,000 passengers.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/business/india-business/Jet-Airways-to-hold-talks-with-pilots-on-Friday-/articleshow/4995692.cms

[Naim 6]

Jet Airways to Resume Operations as Pilots End Strike (Update2)

 

By Vipin V. Nair

 

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Jet Airways (India) Ltd., the nation’s largest carrier by market value, said it will resume full operations today after reaching an agreement with some of its pilots who had been on strike for the past five days.

 

The airline reinstated the four pilots it fired and formed a consultative group for talks, Vice President K.G. Vishwanath told reporters today in Mumbai, where Jet Airways is based. More than 1,000 flights were scrapped during the strike, leading to daily revenue losses of about $2.2 million, he said.

 

The strike forced Jet Airways to cancel about 800 flights since Sept. 8, stranding more than 13,000 passengers, according to government estimates. The airline scrapped flights after pilots belonging to the newly formed National Aviators Guild called in sick, refusing to work until the carrier recalled the four pilots dismissed for initiating steps to form the union.

 

Jet Airways spokeswoman Ragini Chopra and union president Girish Kaushik didn’t answer calls to their mobile phones.

 

“A potential challenge in the form of labor unrest is something that the industry will now be concerned about,” said Binit Somaia, South Asia director at the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. “Labor unrest is not something the India’s private airlines had to deal with in the past. Now most carriers will be concerned.”

 

Domestic bookings slumped 39 percent to 14,000 a day since the strike began, Sudheer Raghavan, chief commercial officer, said Sept. 9. International reservations were down 9.5 percent to 9,500 a day.

 

Double Rates

 

Rival carriers began to charge fares at almost double the usual rates after the strike hampered Jet Airways’ operations, the Daily News & Analysis newspaper reported Sept. 11, without saying where it got the information. India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation asked airlines to charge fares at rates that prevailed in the week ended Sept. 6, according to a statement from the Press Information Bureau.

 

As many as 400 captains and first officers protested the firing of their colleagues, said Sam Thomas, general secretary of the guild. The airline then asked a court to force the striking pilots to return to work.

 

Shares of Jet Airways rose 2 percent to 258.55 rupees in Mumbai on Sept. 11. The stock has gained 27 percent this year.

 

Jet Airways posted a first-quarter loss of 2.25 billion rupees ($46 million) as slowing economic growth damped travel demand. The airline may post its worst annual loss in a decade in the year ending in March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

 

The airline slashed flights to the U.S. and other long-haul destinations to save as much as $600 million this year.

 

Airline losses globally may total $9 billion this year, according to the International Air Transport Association, almost double the group’s previous forecast.

 

To contact the reporter on this story: Vipin V. Nair in Mumbai at Vnair12@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 13, 2009 03:11 EDT

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aqrDqyRj39gg#