By KUNA,
New Delhi : Nearly 600 pilots of a private Indian airline “Jet Airways” went on “sick leave” on Tuesday morning while protesting against sacking of two of their colleagues last month.
The protest led to utter chaos at almost all the airports across the country as thousands of passengers were left stranded.
The pilots decided to proceed on sick leave on Monday night after a meeting of the National Aviators Guild (NAG). Due to non-availability of the pilots, as many as 115 flights of Jet Airways were canceled in different cities.
The NAG (National Aviators Guild) is demanding the reinstatement of two pilots who were terminated for setting up a union of employees to press for their demands.
Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal met India’s Civil Aviation Secretary Madhavan Nambiar this morning for about half-an-hour and discussed the situation arising out of the strike of pilots.
Meanwhile, Jet Airways has said that it had no prior information of the strike, and the airlines staff also got to know very late about it.
In a Press statement issued by it, Jet Airways said that a section of the pilots had resorted to a simulated strike by reporting sick. “This organized activity is planned sabotage of operations that will damage the airlines’ operations and inconvenience the travelling public,” it added.
The airline has put up the affected commuters in hotels and has offered to refund the fares. Some passengers are also getting SMSs informing them of their flights’ cancellation due to the pilots’ agitation, said media reports.