Air India board to meet today; pilots' strike enters Day 21

Mumbai: Air India board will meet here on Monday to discuss the nearly three-week-old strike by pilots and a host of financial issues.

According to TV reports, the board is likely to consider the next steps to be taken to deal with the strike, spearheaded by the now derecognised Indian Pilots Guild.

Earlier, striking pilots indicated that they are ready to return to work if the 101 sacked pilots are reinstated.

In a letter to Singh, IPG General Secretary Erjahn Kapadia said: "We would be very grateful if you could accommodate us in your busy schedule and grant us an appointment at the earliest."

"We wish to reiterate that IPG members are willing, available and open to hold talks with the Hon'ble minister and ministry officials to end the stalemate at the earliest," it said appealing to Singh give them "at least a chance to present our case in front of him".

The IPG also claimed that it has requested one of the eight pilots recently trained to fly Boeing 787-Dreamliner to fly to Seattle in the US to take delivery of the first of these aircraft for Air India.

The IPG letter came a day after Singh said the government may consider reinstatement of the pilots on a case-to-case basis if they return to work.

The ongoing pilots' agitation has resulted in cancellation of several flights of the ailing airline, including many international ones, causing passenger inconvenience and a loss of over Rs.200 crore to the exchequer.

About 500 Air India pilots who fly international routes have been demanding that their colleagues from Indian Airlines should not be trained to fly Dreamliners, as they believe it may hurt the career prospects of original Air India staff.

Both companies were merged in 2007, but there have been problems with the integration since then. A central auditor also criticized Air India's purchase of Dreamliners last year for "imposing an undue long-term financial burden".