Mumbai: Indian Pilots’ Guild, or IPG, a section of pilots at national flag carrier Air India Ltd, which is on strike for more than 50 days, on Monday claimed the carrier has lost Rs654 crore because of grounded planes and a loss in market share.
Rohit Nandan, chairman and managing director of Air India, said in an interview last week the airline is losing Rs10 crore a day in revenue. He said an actual loss could be estimated after three months.
In a statement, IPG said Air India is able to sell only approximately 1,000 seats a day on international flights as opposed to 4,000 seats per day as was proposed in the company’s summer schedule. ”In other words, in the last 50 days, Air India (international) has lost 75% market share. This has resulted in a loss of revenue of over Rs500 crore,” it said. Air India has lost close to Rs154 crore on account of monthly payments to be made towards grounded airplanes, it added.
The pilots’ association requested that Prime Minister and the government to intervene to end the impasse at the earliest.
However, the aviation ministry and Air India management have said they will talk to the protesting pilots only when they call off the strike.
