Talks stall, Jet strike goes on

Talks between the Jet Airways management and the agitating pilots remained deadlocked after a marathon government-mediated nine-hour negotiation on Friday as the stir entered the fourth day affecting nearly 250 flights. HT reports.

Talks between the Jet Airways management and the agitating pilots remained deadlocked after a marathon government-mediated nine-hour negotiation on Friday as the stir entered the fourth day affecting nearly 250 flights.

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“The discussions are inconclusive. Everything is inconclusive,” Saroj Datta, executive director of Jet Airways, told reporters after the meeting.

The talks were held before the Chief Labour Commissioner S K Mukhopadhyay in the Capital. The Jet management is willing to reinstate the four sacked pilots but it wants the newly founded pilots union, the National Aviators' Guild (NAG), disbanded. The pilots are opposed to this precondition.

“The management has agreed to take back the pilots; but the meeting was not quite conclusive. We hope to make better progress tomorrow,” Girish Kaushik, president of NAG said.

The reconciliation talks will resume on Saturday at the airline’s headquarters in Mumbai. “We will not report to work unless the talks are over,” Kaushik said.

Jet Airways officials said the airlines was incurring a revenue erosion of Rs 30 crore a day due to the stir.

In a letter to the airlines, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had asked the airlines to charge fares at last week's level from passengers.

Some airlines were allegedly charging an average of Rs 9,000-10,000 for Mumbai-Delhi route, while some are even charging up to Rs 15,000 per seat.