There have been incidents reported by the Air India pilots’ grouping that the management of the company is being “intimidating and coercing” to some of the group members to extend the flight duty timings beyond the prescribed limits.
Pilots’ Unions Writes to MD & CEO of Air India
The issue has been flagged to the Air India Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson as Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) have written a letter to him.
In the joint letter, the unions also highlighted the risk that extensions of Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) do with the safety of the pilots, which violates the established regulations.
For the unaware, ICPA & IPG are unions which represents the narrow body pilots and members from the wide body fleet of Air India respectively.
The letter highlighted that some of the pilots were facing intimidation and coercion to extend their FDTL by various people like Director of Operations and base managers. The intimidation went till threats of jeopardising their career progression.
Calling the matter, a “grave concern”, unions also highlighted the revised FDTL norms by aviation regulator DGCA for pilots that provide for increased weekly rest period, extension in night hours by an hour and just two night landings as against six earlier.
The letter from the union said that “however, the reported incidents undermine these principles and pose a serious risk to both our personnel and the integrity of our operations” and also requested the authority to take appropriate action as it mentioned in the letter “We request your immediate intervention to investigate these allegations and put an end to any coercive practices related to FDTL extensions”.
Union Warns Further Escalations if No Action taken by Authorities
If the authority fails to take a stern action against these people, then the union warned that it would produce evidence including call records in order to ensure transparency as well as accountability. The letter read that “We believe that our duty is not only to the company but also to the safety of the passengers and the reputation of the aviation industry”.
Copies of the letter have been marked to Tata Group and Air India Chairman N Chandrasekaran, Air India Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Klaus Goersch, and Chief of Flight Safety Rajeev Gupta, among others.
