12 Sep : Jet Airways cancelled 281 flights on Saturday, 21 of them international, as the strike by the pilots entered the fifth day after marathon talks between them and the management ended in a deadlock.
The pilots said they were “hopeful” of a breakthrough on Saturday as negotiations between the management and National Aviators’ Guild (NAG), the union leading the agitation over sacking of some pilots, will resume in Mumbai this evening.
“We have cancelled 281 flights for the day. Of these, 260 are domestic and 21 international,” a Jet spokesperson told a news agency.
The private carrier operates 365 domestic and 74 international flights daily.The spokesperson, however, did not give the number of pilots who reported sick today. Jet had said on Friady that 495 out the total 1,056 pilots had not joined duty, reporting sick.
On Friday, the pilots and the management representatives sat for face-to-face negotiations for the first time since the stir started on Tuesday, but the nine-hour-long talks before the Chief Labour Commissioner in Delhi ended inconclusively.
The pilots, before heading for negotiations today, would discuss Friday’s development among themselves.The Guild is demanding reinstatement of four sacked pilots, two of them fired from service during the stir that
began on September 8, but the management is insisting on dissolving the union before taking them back.