Skip to main content

India pilots strike underway; 91 flights cancelled

Thursday, September 10, 2009 MUMBAI: Jet Airways (India) Ltd. said Thursday it canceled 91 flights, including 21 to overseas destinations, as a standoff between pilots and the airline management entered its third day.The standoff began with pilots taking sick leave to protest the sacking of two of their colleagues in July. Two more pilots were sacked by the airline management Wednesday.The total number of the protesting pilots touched 432 Wednesday out of 760 in the airline.The protesting pilots are part of a recently formed National Aviators Guild, which claims to represent more than 650 pilots.The standoff, which Jet calls a "simulated strike," forced Jet to cancel 174 flights Wednesday to destinations including Bangkok, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. Also, the airline shifted half its 14,000 domestic passengers to other carriers.Jet said the pilots went on sick leave despite a continuing conciliation process with the management.The Bombay High Court Tuesday issued a restraining order preventing the pilots from going on sick leave after Jet moved an application in the court.Jet said the court Wednesday issued a contempt notice to the National Aviators Guild for not complying with the earlier order.Sam Thomas, general secretary of the guild, said the pilots are willing to meet the management but will end their protest only after the sacked pilots are reinstated.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cuba's world-famous cigar festival closes in Havana

Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Snake bite deaths

Monday, July 06, 2009 COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government recorded some 33,000 snake bites in 2008, with most of the victims coming from remote villages.The Department of Government Information said in a statement that most of the snake bite cases could be fatal if neglected.The statement said snake bites are often neglected in Sri Lanka as victims do not seek treatment at hospitals where advanced medication is available. Instead, the victims rush to traditional type of treatment which could be a risk, reports Xinhua.Snake bites death at domestic level, outside hospitals, go unrecorded, said the statement.Most victims of snake bite are from the rural and remote villages where there is no electricity after dusk.Statistics show that Sri Lanka has over 90 species of snake with around 10 species possessing venom capable of killing a human being.In Sri Lanka the annual death rate due to snake bite envenoming is one of the highest in the world being 6 in 100,000 population.
Post a Comment
Read more

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...
Post a Comment
Read more