Jet resumes flights as strike ends

A trickle of passengers started arriving at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here early Sunday to catch flights that were announced by the private carrier, an official said. Two of the flights - Mumbai-Dubai and return - were operated on an international route.

On the domestic route, flights would operate on the Mumbai-Delhi, Vadodara-Mumbai, Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Bangalore, Mumbai-Mangalore (including return), Mumbai-Hyderabad (return), Mumbai-Chennai, Ahmedabad-Delhi, Delhi-Lucknow (return), Delhi-Vadodara (return), Madurai-Chennai, Chennai-Coimbatore and Chennai-Bangalore (return).

The operations are expected to completely normalise when the pilots are delegated duties on Sunday evening, an official said. The airline is likely to announce resumption of more operations.

Early Sunday morning, Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal said an amicable agreement had been reached. The pilots called off their strike just before midnight on Saturday.
"The airline will operate its full schedule of services on all sectors with all crew reporting for their normal duties," he said in a statement.

President of the National Aviators Guild (NAG) Girish Kaushik said the dispute had been solved and the pilots would return to work as usual. "An amicable settlement has been reached, it was like a misunderstanding in the family," he said.

The understanding includes reinstatement of four pilots whose services were terminated by the airline recently, informed Congress parliamentarian from Mumbai North Sanjay Nirupam.

However, the issue of the union would be decided by the Registrar of Trade Unions, said Nirupam, who played a critical role in breaking the five-day deadlock in which the airline has reportedly suffered losses in excess of Rs 1 billion.