NEW DELHI, 29 April 2003 — The Indian government has initiated a process in consultation with the Labor Ministry for declaring the undeclared strike by Indian Pilots Guild(IPG) as “illegal” and take necessary action against its members, Minister for Civil Aviation Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told Lok Sabha today.

Responding to queries raised by some members during Zero Hour on the suspension of 27 pilots for their refusal to fly aircraft to SARS-hit Singapore and Hong Kong, Hussain said: “We have initiated a process in consultation with the Labor Ministry to declare their undeclared strike illegal and take necessary action against them.”

“The members of the IPG are not on strike but they are refusing to fly aircraft. They want written undertakings that none of the crew members accompanying them had visited SARS-hit countries during the past ten days,” he said.

Despite these problems, Air-India is expected to make a profit of one billion rupees this year against 150 million last year, Hussain said.

So far not a single flight to USA and Europe had been canceled due to IPG’s stir and executive pilots were operating these flights, he said.

Meanwhile, the Air-India pilots vowed yesterday not to be bowed by the management’s decision to suspend 27 of their colleagues.

“We are not a bit bothered by the management’s decision to suspend our pilots,” Kenneth Khan, president of the IPG that is representing the striking pilots, said.

“We are considering legal advice on this issue,” Khan said.

“No amount of money will make us fly to SARS-affected countries like Hong Kong,” he said.

The airline at the weekend suspended 27 pilots who had refused to fly to SARS-affected countries, thereby disrupting its flight schedules, especially to Middle Eastern regions.

In the past week, 37 flights to and from the Gulf region had to be canceled due to pilots’ protest.

The striking pilots were also not concerned by management’s decision to bring in retired and so-called executive pilots — senior pilots now holding office jobs and not members of the IPG — to help keep flight schedules.

“We are aware of their (management) plans. Let us see how they replace more than 200 of our pilots and for how long,” said Khan.

On Sunday Air India (AI) said it had prepared a contingency plan that would end the uncertainty triggered by the pilots’ refusal to fly.

“The Civil Aviation Ministry and Air-India are clear that striking pilots will not get away with their actions,” A-I spokesman Jitendra Bhargav said.