Air India resumes normal operations - Airport Hotels Airport News

Airport news for Airport Hotels on 01/10/2009.

Arrange your travel plans by choosing from car hire, hotels, flights, airport parking and travel insurance using our form.

After a four-day pilots strike which left Air India struggling to cope with cancelled flights and stranded passengers, the airline has now announced that the protests have ended and services have been returned to normal.

During the protests, Air India had suspended all bookings to avoid leaving even more passengers without connections. The airline has now resumed the booking services.

The Air India pilots strike was launched after the airline management made the announcement that productivity-related incentives paid to staff would be substantially cut, in order to help Air India stem its staggering losses. The strike action began on September 26, with the active support of around 250 of the airline's 1,200 pilots.

The pilots registered their protests by calling in sick, leading to chaos at airports, where passengers found they would not be boarding flights. The strike resulted in the airline having to cancel 21 of its international flights to cities like Chicago, Singapore and London. Domestic connections were also disrupted, with more than 30 regional flights cancelled.

The pilots returned to work on Wednesday; four days after the strike began, after they were assured by India's Aviation Minister Praful Patel that their grievances would be adequately addressed. The surprise thaw in the government's position came only hours after the Aviation Minister had issued statements saying that the government, as owners of the airline, were unhappy with the protest actions, and that the management of Air India would be given a free rein to make whatever decisions were necessary to protect the interests of the airline.

More Airport News