Air India pilots to Modi: Clear our dues before privatisation

The largest pilots’ union of Air India has committed its support for privatisation, considering the government takes steps to clear their pending salaries. In a letter addressed to Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and marked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) wrote to clear the flying allowances and other payables to the pilots before transfer of ownership. “Through this letter, we make a humble request to issue orders for release of our illegally withheld 25 per cent flying allowance and related allowances before privatisation so that the new management can start with clean financial statements," Praveen Keerthi, general secretary of ICPA, wrote on Wednesday. ICPA is the union of Air India’s narrow-body pilots mainly flying on domestic routes.