The Indian civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi has stated that Air India will reinstate pilots sacked after starting the strike. The striking pilots maintain that all they need to come back to work is reinstatement of pilots and a written assurance on their demands being met. However they say this has not yet been received and until it does no decision to end the strike will be made.
The Delhi High Court issued contempt notices to nine of the striking Air India pilots for defying its order to call off the agitation which entered the seventh day yesterday. The nine pilots are office bearers of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), the union that has called the strike.
While issuing the contempt notices, the court also decided to take up the matter again on May 25.
About 800 pilots of the union and around 200 executive pilots who were working with the now-defunct Indian Airlines have been on strike since April 26 midnight and have been demanding parity in wages with their counterparts from Air India.