New Delhi, September 30
An assurance by Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to agitating Air India executive pilots that there would be no cut in their incentives, it appears, struck right on target as the protesters called off their five days old stir today morning.

But, flight normalcy may be restored only from tomorrow. The airline’s management said the pilots would be assigned work once they were declared fit to fly. While domestic flights would return to schedule in a phased manner, international flights were expected to resume by tomorrow night.

Interestingly, the drama surrounding the stir continued till the very last minute of the 5 pm deadline set by Patel for the pilots to report back to work. While during the day only a few pilots reported for duty, but as the deadline neared around 100 more announced they were ready to fly.

Notably, the government had warned of disciplinary action in case the pilots had not reported to work by 5 pm.

With Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav unable to resolve the crisis at his level, in the end it took the government at the level of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that normalcy prevailed in the national carrier. Truce was forced when the PMO intervened and asked Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to resolve the matter at the earliest.

While seemingly it was Patel’s “appeal” and an “assurance” to pilots that played the trick, actually some hard talk led to the stalemate being resolved.

At the end of the stand-off, leader of agitating pilots, VK Bhalla, hailed the Prime Minister for “intervening” and the Civil Aviation Minister for his “assurance” of a status quo on the salary front. “As the Aviation Minister has officially assured us, we are calling off the strike with immediate effect,” Bhalla said.

The Civil Aviation Minister also thanked the pilots for calling off their agitation. “The Air India CMD will be shortly forming a committee of executive pilots,” Patel said at the end of the impasse that led to hundreds of domestic and international flights being cancelled.

Sources, however, said pilots were given a clear message that they would face disciplinary action, even revocation of licence and sacking of their “leaders”, if they did not fall in line by 5 pm today.

With the aviation sector going through a massive downturn worldwide, there were not enough flying jobs available anymore. And who knows it better than the Minister, who said: “There are no avenues of employment elsewhere. It is still better in India because the spirit here is not anti-employee.”

The fact is there are anywhere between 3,000 to 3,500 commercial pilot licence (CPL) holders looking for jobs. Nearly 100 to 150 young CPL holders, who spent anywhere up to Rs 35 lakh to become pilots, had recently formed the All India Unemployed Pilots Association (UPA).

The strike may be over for the time being but the crisis in the cash-strapped national carrier is far from over. Air India is expected to get around Rs 5,000 crore infusion linked to the rider that it will cut costs to the tune of Rs 630 crore. The airline's losses since last fiscal till recently are expected to be over Rs 7,200 crore.

Patel asked the national carrier to take steps to reduce its expenses and debts and warned that the government's support for Air India did not come without a rider.

Meanwhile, Bhalla said: “The profitability is directly related to fuel factor. We know how to save fuel that will generate profit. We will advise the top management to stop wasteful expenditure, like a golf tournament is being sponsored by Air India.”