Services on India’s second-largest private airline, Jet Airways, resumed yesterday after a five-day walk-out by pilots ended, the company said.
The airline said an “amicable agreement” had been reached with the pilots, who took mass sick leave on Tuesday after the sacking of two senior pilots for setting up an unrecognized trade union.
“Effective Sunday September 13, the airline will operate their full schedule of services on all sectors with all crew reporting for their normal rostered duties,” the company said in a statement.
Airline spokesman A.K. Shivanandan yesterday said that “most flights” had already started, adding: “By this [Sunday] evening normalcy would be restored.”
Thousands of Jet customers were forced to change their travel plans in one of the biggest aviation disruptions in India in recent years, affecting hundreds of domestic and international services.
Jet management and members of the National Aviators’ Guild had been locked in talks with the chief labor commissioner in New Delhi since Friday to resolve the dispute.
The airline called the stoppage by more than 430 pilots — over half the airline’s 760-pilot roster — a “simulated strike” and illegal because conciliation talks had already begun before they reported sick.
Jet officials, who sacked two other pilots for breach of disciplinary procedures, yesterday told a news conference in Mumbai that no action would be taken against the pilots.
The private carrier, which flies to London, New York, Toronto, Singapore and other international destinations as well as to most Indian cities, operates 365 domestic and 74 international flights daily.
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