Air Sahara pilots' strike enters third day

    New Delhi: Services of the Air Sahara remained disturbed for the third day on Tuesday as pilots threatened to intensify their protest from today. As the airline's pilots launched the strike on Sunday, 12 flights were cancelled yesterday, included that from Delhi to Singapore, three flights to Kolkata, one each to Hyderabad, Jammu and Pune. While on the first day as many as thirty-three flights were cancelled, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here. There has been unrest among the pilots after the 500-million dollar (Rs 2,300 crore) takeover of the airlines by Jet Airways, where their pay and perks are on the lower side than that of the acquired airline. According to them, they want that it should be clear whether they join Jet Airways or not. The officials cannot go for the same strategy as they did with the airline. However, there was no positive response from the Air Sahara officials as yet. The passengers, who had to fly by the Air Sahara, were accommodated in Jet Airways and Kingfisher airlines.

    Jet Airways India Ltd had acquired Sahara Airlines for 500 million dollars (Rs 2,300 crore). The deal was inked on January 18 by Sahara Group Chairman Subrata Roy and Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had said that Jet-Sahara deal would not lead to monopoly. He said that every airline had started its business in a small way and tried to expand its operations. According to sources, the deal was inclusive of all the liabilities of Air Sahara which were brought down to about Rs 150 crore ahead of the takeover agreement. Acquisition of Air Sahara had made Jet Airways the undisputed leader in the Indian aviation sector. Post-acquisition, Jet will command over 45 percent of Indian aviation sector. Moreover, in lucrative metro destinations, like Delhi-Mumbai route that accounts for nearly 50 percent of total domestic air traffic, Jet-Sahara will account for 85 percent of the flights. Keeping this in mind, the smaller airlines like Kingfisher Airways, GoAir and Indigo are toying with the idea of forming an alliance to lobby with the Government for a level-playing field.

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