Jet Airways on Thursday cancelled nearly 200 domestic and international flights as its pilots continued their agitation to protest sacking of two of their colleagues.
"The situation continues ... there are no talks so far. We have not got any invite from the management side showing their willingness to talk to us," Capt Sam Thomas, Joint General Secretary of National Aviators Guild, which is spearheading the agitation, told PTI.
He claimed that overall 500 pilots have reported sick.
A spokesperson of the airlines said it has cancelled 163 domestic and 35 international flights as 400 of its over 1000 pilots did not report for duty.
To deal with the situation, the airline has set up a crisis management centre which is continuously monitoring the situation.
At the crisis centre, a team of 15 personnel from planning, revenue management and PR is working round-the-clock to reschedule various flights and monitor the situation, the airline said.
The airline operates 75 international flights and 300 domestic flights on a normal day.
Fares soar as airlines chip in to help Jet
Airlines like Air India, Kingfisher, IndiGo and SpiceJet are picking up Jet passengers from grounded flights and the airline has also worked out inter-airline payment adjustments so that passengers do not have to pay extra for flights redirected to other airlines.
Fares available on the net, however, shot up 50 to 100 per cent during peak hours owing to the sudden reduction of capacity due to cancelled flights.
"Except for Air India, low-cost carriers have raised fares 50 per cent and full-service carriers by around 100 per cent," confirmed Mohit Srivastava, head of online sales, MakemyTrip.com, an online portal.
On a Delhi-Bangalore route, Kingfisher normally charges Rs 6,000 (one way). The fare today rose to Rs 12,500. Low-cost carriers have upped Delhi-Bangalore ticket prices from Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,500, according to makemytrip data (see table).
| HIGH FLIERS Peak time ticket rates from Delhi [ Images ] to Bangalore | ||
| Airline | Price earlier | Price now |
| Kingfisher | 6,000 | 12,500 |
| Go Air | 3,000 | 4,500 |
| Air India | 6,000 | 6,000 |
| SpiceJet | 3,179 | NA |
| IndiGo | 3,179 | NA |
| Amount in Rs NA: Tickets not available | ||
Sources in Kingfisher admitted that the Vijay Mallya-owned airline was getting 100 per cent passenger load factor in the business class currently instead of the average of 50 per cent. Air India saw passenger load factor increase from 60 per cent to 74 per cent on Wednesday.
Significantly, both full-service and low-cost carriers have strongly supported Jet chief Naresh Goyal.
"We cannot tolerate labour terrorism by employees who get salaries above Rs 400,000 a month," said a senior executive of a leading private airline, adding, "Also, at a time of recession for the industry we are concerned that the pilots' attitude might spread to other airlines too. At this moment everyone has to make sacrifices."
"Goyal has not budged an inch and that is the right way. We fully support his moves. I don't see the pilots getting support from any other employees who distrust them," added a CEO of a low-cost carrier.
National Aviator's Guild's joint secretary Captain Sam Thomas, however, made it clear that the mass leave move will continue till their demands of reinstating all the pilots sacked is met.
Jet Airways has a 26.3 per cent - 18.9 per cent of Jet Airways and 7.4 per cent of JetLite - share of the domestic passenger market that carries 100,000 passengers a day.
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