Air India operates flights beneath the Vande Bharat plan to deliver back again stranded Indians. (File)
New Delhi:
Some 60 Air India pilots running repatriation flights to bring again Indians stranded abroad have tested constructive for coronavirus, the airline has claimed in a letter to the government.
The Vande Bharat mission to repatriate Indians arrived “with a large price tag to fork out for individuals on the frontline. As of date, at minimum 60 furthermore Pilots have been tested Covid good,” senior-most pilots of the countrywide carrier have prepared in the letter addressed to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri.
“This has had a ‘devastating effect’ on their relatives members,” explained the letter, protesting the government’s selection to dramatically cut pilots’ salaries.
The govt decision to minimize the income of pilots by up to 75% is “discriminatory, disproportionate and arbitrary and could have a disastrous psychological effects which could result in ‘desperate and intense functions,’ as has been continuously confirmed numerous moments in the earlier,” warned the senior pilots.
Air India has a credit card debt of close to Rs 70,000 crore. The federal government has been striving to sell off the airline but no offer has been closed so much.
Air India pilots were being the initial to fly into Wuhan to rescue stranded Indians and now operates flights below the Vande Bharat plan to deliver back again stranded Indian nationals from a host of nations around the world all around the world.
Additional than 7,73,000 Indians have returned from throughout the globe. “It will usually be our endeavour to access out to each and every stranded Indian with a helping hand,” stated the Minister.
On July 16, Hardeep Puri claimed: “You have to make a decision if you want Air India to endure or do you want to do this. If Air India is to pack up, none of them will get a occupation. Today, there is a surplus of plane and trained men and women out there.”
The minister was justifying Air India’s decision to ship selected workers on depart without pay for up to five decades.
Air India experienced reported that its financial scenario is really complicated due to the coronavirus pandemic and its go away without pay out plan for workers is a “acquire-earn” for them as nicely as the administration.
Vacation restrictions in India and other nations around the world to combat COVID-19 have seriously hit airways not just in the region but across the globe. All airlines in India have taken expense-chopping measures this kind of as shell out cuts, Leave Without having Shell out and trimming the workforce.
