Air India management, striking pilots talks collaps

New Delhi, Sep.28 (ANI): Talks between the management of national carrier Air India and the airline's striking pilots have collapsed after both sides refused to budge on stated positions. The deadlocked negotiations are likely to have a huge setback on passengers opting to travel by the airline.

Earlier, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav met a representative of the striking pilots, Captain V K Bhalla, here in the hope of ending the deadlock between the Air India management and the agitating pilots.

The meeting began 2:00 p:m here and concluded a short while ago.

The pilots' strike entered its third day on Monday, causing considerable discomfort to passengers across the country.

Passengers faced last minute cancellations of their flights, leading to an upheaval in their personal and work schedules.

Passengers have been thronging the Air India counter at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport to enquire about their flights.

"We kept on calling them to ask about the flight schedule. If they had told us yesterday itself, we would have cancelled the flight and made arrangements on some other flight.

They kept on telling us, the flight was scheduled. But today, it was cancelled. This is not done. Now, we are in great difficulty and are trying to get on some other flight," said Shilpi, a passenger.

A similar situation is being faced by passengers in Mumbai, where they had a torturous time due to the cancellation of their flights.

"We were planning to go, they said. The flight was delayed due to some reason," said Kumar, another passenger.

Striking pilots have refused to get back to work until the controversial pay-cut order is completely withdrawn.

A total of 12 flights were cancelled today. Out of these, ten are domestic and two are international.

The Air India management on Sunday also agreed to set up a committee to look into the Productivity-Linked Incentives (PLI) modalities.

In another development, pilots in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata agreed not to go on strike.

Striking pilots in Chennai and Kolkata have also agreed to the committee set up by the management. (ANI)