The Delhi High Court came down heavily on the agitating Air India pilots. A bench comprising Chief Justice Deepak Misra and Justice Sanjeev Khanna issued notices to the pilots on the plea of Air India Management seeking contempt proceedings against the pilots. The High Court directed the 800 protesting Air India pilots to resume their work immediately. But, the pilots refused to budge, leading to the cancellation of dozens of flights over the past three days.
he pilots mostly belong to erstwhile Indian Airlines that was merged with Air India. They are part of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA). The ICPA, which was de-recognised and had its offices sealed, is demanding a higher fixed component in the salary package, a CBI probe into the alleged mismanagement and removal of Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav.
Meanwhile, the state-owned airline was forced to stop ticket bookings for several days, resulting in air fares shooting up in select sectors, especially on the busy metro routes. Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi met the Prime Minister to try and resolve the matter. The Air India management terminated the services of seven pilots and suspended six others. According to Air India spokesperson, the cash strapped national carrier is losing Rs. 40-50mn a day due to the strike. This figure might be more as the airline has liabilities towards payment of installments of new and leased aircraft and the salary of its employees.
The strike could intensify in the coming days as employees affiliated to the now de-recognised unions Air Corporation Employees Union - for ground staff - and Aircraft Engineers Association - for aircraft maintenance engineers - expressed their solidarity with the striking pilots of ICPA.
SC quashes ADF at Mumbai airport
The Supreme Court (SC) shot down the levy of airport development fee (ADF) charged by a private developer on passengers at the Mumbai airport. With this, passengers will not have to pay an additional amount for landing or taking off at the Mumbai airports. The apex court's ruling is likely to lower domestic air ticket prices as well.
A bench comprising justice Cyriac Joseph and justice A.K. Patnaik set aside the Delhi High Court’s order, which had upheld levying of ADF. The Supreme Court passed the order on a petition filed by the NGO Consumer Online Foundation, claiming that the ADF was illegal as it was not approved by the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India.
Passengers departing from Delhi airport are paying ADF of Rs. 200 for domestic flights and Rs. 1,300 for international flights. Passengers at the Mumbai airport are charged Rs. 100 for domestic flights and Rs. 600 for international flights.
GMR Infra operates the New Delhi airport and GVK operates the Mumbai airport.
The Delhi and Mumbai airports are BOT projects and GMR and GVK are supposed to hand over the two airports to the Government after 30 years. In a bid to compensate the private developers for their investments in the two airports, the AAI had allotted them land to monetise.
“In lieu of their expenses they were given land near the airports. Still, they charged the fee on passengers. That’s why we moved the courts,” said Prashant Kumar, lawyer for Consumer Online Foundation.
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