NEW DELHI, MARCH 25: If the pilots don't get you, the engineers will. Indian Airlines (IA) flights across the country have been delayed and the flight schedule disrupted because of a 'go-slow' attitude adopted by the engineers since the past two weeks.On Saturday, two IA flights, on the Mumbai-Delhi and Mumbai-Banglore sectors, were cancelled and some flights combined because of the delays. IA's on-time performance has come down from 90 per cent a month ago to around 65 per cent.Thousands of passengers, mainly on the Mumbai sector, have been affected with flights being delayed up to two hours as the engineers are pressing for a wage revision. Today, the IA 8 a.m. flight from Delhi to Mumbai was delayed for two hours.On March 16, when the informal go-slow was in-force, the Mumbai-Delhi evening flight, which had Swissair President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey G Katz on-board, was delayed for nearly two hours. Katz was travelling to a meeting with the IA top brass in New Delhi. This proved to be extremely embarrassing for IA.When contacted by The Indian Express, an official spokesperson denied there was any organised agitation by the engineers. He, however, conceded that the flight schedule had recently been disrupted with some delays being reported as IA's fleet was old and maintenance was a problem. "We have to make sure that the maintenance is up to our standards" he said.Sources say that while the engineers are yet to give official notice of their go-slow agitation, industrial relations in IA have plummeted. They say that the engineers are pressing IA Chairman Anil Baijal for the long-delayed wage revision. Several meetings have been held with the Engineers' Association. So far, no solution has been found and IA has been forced to club flights to maintain the semblance of a schedule.Sources say that the Civil Aviation Ministry has also officially 'expressed its concern at the flight delays' to Baijal on Friday. Baijal has been told to sort out the problem.
