Alliance pilots hold entire N-E to ransom, do no-show again

The Alliance management has been taken aback by the flying crew’s decision to go ahead with the strike, after it had promised to improve their pay packages. It had even written to them on February 14, the day before the pilots first reported sick.

But the pilots stuck to their stance that while their Airbus counterparts were earning as much as Rs 1,20,000 a month, they were being paid Rs 60,000 a month for flying the much-smaller ATRs.

The pilots also wanted higher compensation in case their licences were cancelled for some reason—physical or technical.

Said the airline’s Regional Director (Eastern region), Shekhar Ghosh: ‘‘How can an ATR pilot expect to be paid as much as a Boeing pilot? In any case, the pilots should have waited instead of going on strike.’’

Ghosh said that the management had told the pilots before they went on strike that a detailed proposal on wages and licence cancellation was going to be ready by February-end.

In fact, a day before the strike, Captain Mehboob Bhatt, Executive Director (Operations), had sent a note to all his ATR pilots telling them that the airline planned to induct Airbus 319 aircraft on lease by November 2005.

Bhatt had also told them that revised wages would be implemented with effect from October 2004 and the compensation for the loss of licence would be raised to Rs 30 lakh from Rs 15 lakh.

Alliance Air officials maintained that passengers were accommodated on three Boeing flights to Guwahati, Silchar, Imphal and Agartala. Many, however, had to be turned back, according to airport sources.