By IANS,
Chennai : Air passenger service should be brought under Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) so that a carrier or its employees do not leave passengers in the lurch.
“Air travel has become an essential part of people’s life. It is time the government brings air passenger service under ESMA so that travelling public are not taken for a ride by the airlines and their employees,” said Hiren Bhaskar Shah, national secretary of the Air Passengers Association of India (APAI).
The Chennai-headquartered association has over 4,000 members and has chapters in major cities.
He said his association had made the suggestion to the civil aviation ministry in 2005.
Reacting to the cancellation of flights by Jet Airways after its pilots went on strike, he said: “The airlines instead of cancelling the flights can hire pilots who are trained abroad and remain unemployed here.”
There are around 3,000 trained pilots possessing commercial pilots licence in India and around 150 of them have joined together to form a union called the All India Unemployed Pilots Association.
The pilots were trained in overseas institutes spending around Rs.3.5 million when the airline industry boomed in India.