NEW DELHI: A large number of Alliance Air pilots have gone on strike, reportedly over salary issues. Sources say pilots were promised 25% more as retainership but that didn’t happen. “So they went on a flash strike on Friday. This started from Delhi base and has extended now pan India. Evening flights cancelled,” say sources.
Comments have been sought from Alliance Air — the regional turboprop subsidiary of erstwhile Air India and now the only government-owned fixed wing airline — and are awaited. The government is soon going to divest this airline, with Tatas being seen as a likely contender as the group does not have a turboprop-powered regional arm along with IndiGo which already has ATRs in its fleet.
Alliance Air currently has a fleet of 19 turboprops — 18 ATRs and a made-in-India Dornier of HAL — and operates 115 daily departures on a network of 50 domestic destinations mainly in north and Northeast India. The 800-employee-strong airline will induct two more ATRs by September and another HAL-made Dornier. The regional carrier plans to start an international route — Chennai-Jaffna — soon, depending on the situation in Sri Lanka.
