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More Air Sahara flights cancelled as pilots' strike continues
New Delhi: Six Air Sahara flights were cancelled on Monday morning as the flash strike by the Air Sahara pilots entered second day. As the airline's pilots launched the strike yesterday, as many as thirty-three flights were cancelled, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here. Numbers of passengers, who had to fly by the Air Sahara, were accommodated in Jet Airways and Kingfisher airlines.
There
has been unrest among the pilots after the 500-million dollar (Rs 2,300
crores) takeover of the airlines by Jet Airways, where their pay and perks
are on the lower side than that of the acquired airline. 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 Subrato 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 the 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.
-Feb
13, 2006