Air India lost Rs.27 crore due to pilots' strike

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Mumbai, April 29 :) Air India Friday said it had suffered a revenue loss of nearly Rs.27 crore in the past three days since a section of its pilots went on a strike.
In a statement, the national carrier said that on the first day of the strike Wednesday, out of its regular total 320 flights, it operated 44 flights of Alliance Air, 70 of Air India Express and 53 of Air India.
The strike by pilots owing allegiance to Indian Commercial Pilots Association of the erstwhile Indian Airlines hit the domestic operations badly, leading to cancellation of 57 flights as 69 executive pilots reported sick.
The revenue loss on the first day of the strike is estimated at Rs.4.5 crore.
On Thursday, the second day of the strike, the operations of Alliance Air and Air India Express were normal. The operations of Air India wide body were near normal as only a couple of its flights were cancelled.
However, despite the number of domestic flights being curtailed by 45, the sector saw cancellation of 51 flights, affecting a total of 96 flights and leading to revenue loss of Rs.10 crore.
On Friday, the third day of the strike, Alliance Air, Air India Express and Air India wide body continued to maintain normal services.
Air India Express managed to operate two additional flights to Dubai and Sharjah to clear the rush of passengers of the past three days, the statement said.
However, the domestic sector suffered with the cancellation of 126 flights so far and operating 39 flights on its network.
The airline attributed this to the decision not to make fresh booking for the next five days till the strike situation becomes clear.
The third day saw the revenue loss soar to Rs.12 crore for the cash-strapped flag-carrier. The total loss for the three days is pegged at nearly Rs.27 crore.