According to an IANS report, Air India pilots have called off their five-day strike today following assurances from the Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel that there would be no salary cuts. Captain V K Bhalla, Senior Executive Pilot, Air India, who was spearheading the strike said, “We have received official communication from the Civil Aviation Minister and he himself has assured that there would be no salary cuts. So we immediately called off the strike. We have no reason to not trust the Civil Aviation Minister. I am asking all the pilots to resume work. We would now fully cooperate with the management. We also apologise to the passengers for the inconvenience caused.”

The strike had begun end of last week with 180 Air India pilots going on sick leave to protest the cut in their PLI (Productivity Linked Incentives). About 100 flights were cancelled till yesterday, whereas today morning 28 flights including two international flights had been cancelled. Technical engineers and Mumbai-based pilots had also joined the strike, which was being led by the Delhi group of the senior executive pilots. The pilots had been protesting for the cut in their wages, but the airline had maintained that this was being done as the airline had reported losses of over Rs 7,200 crore since last fiscal. When asked about the huge losses to Air India, Bhalla stated that the profitability of any airlines was directly related to fuel consumption. “We will advise the management on how to prevent wasteful expenditure,” added Bhalla.