HC restrains IA pilots from training on Boeing 787 aircraft

In a respite for pilots of the erstwhile Air India, the Bombay High Court today restrained the national carrier from sending any pilot from Indian Airlines for training to fly Boeing 787 aircraft which will be inducted in its fleet soon.

The restraint will remain in force until the Civil Aviation Ministry a takes final decision on integration of the two entities, Air India and Indian Airlines.

The ruling thus allows only Air India pilots to train on the new advanced aircraft for now.

A division bench of Justices D K Deshmukh and A V Potdar issued the interim order on a petition filed by Indian Pilots Guild, which represents nearly 400 pilots of Air India, challenging the management's decision to draw equal number of pilots from the erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines for training. Both the airlines were formally merged in February 2011 but some integration issues are still pending.

The petitioner had challenged Air India’s decision of October 20, 2011 to send pilots from both the merged airlines on 1:1 basis for training to fulfil crew requirement for 50 new advanced aircraft – 23 Boeing 777 and 27 Boeing 787.

"The court has ruled that training shall commence only for pilots of Air India on the Boeing 787 aircraft purchased for Air India," advocate Jamshed Mistry appearing for the petitioners said.

The IPG had challenged the decision on the ground that it was arbitrary and would have adverse effect on career prospects of erstwhile Air India pilots.

IPG had argued that in December 2006, the management had executed a wage agreement assuring that the seniority of Air India pilots would be maintained in accordance with their erstwhile set up and at no point of time it was contemplated that Indian Airlines pilots would be allowed to fly the new wide body planes.