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Jet Airways / India Travel / Strikes / Airline Pilots / Airline News / → All Tags

Half Of Jet Airways' Pilots Call In Sick, Attempt To Form Union

India's third largest airline Jet Airways has been going through some troubled times lately. From selling off planes to fight economic woes and having to cut prices by 40% to try and get some more passengers on board, they have drawn the short straw in terms of airline luck this year.

Now their latest drama has involved a sustained campaign by pilots to call in sick. From last Tuesday, more than half of the airline's pilots said they were unable to fly due to illness—their version of striking, since the rules forbid them from striking without giving management sufficient advance warning. The reason for the "strike" is that four pilots were sacked after asking the management to recognize the union they'd formed.

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Flybe / Airline Pilots / Low Cost Carriers / LCCs / → All Tags

Fly-Be Or Not To Fly-Be, We Ask Pilots

Long-serving British low cost carrier Flybe seems to be doing OK in these tricky times. They're talking just as positively as Ryanair and have even been bold enough to add a new route from Gatwick to Torquay.

But. There's always a "but." Their pilots are getting a bad rap all because a flight this week from London to Paris was forced to turn around and head home again because the pilot was underqualified to land in foggy conditions.

We accept Flybe's explanation that the experienced pilot had just changed aircraft and hadn't done all the training levels to get the right badges. But he apparently announced to the passengers that he was just a Level 5 pilot and Charles de Gaulle wanted a Level 2.

Is it just us, or is there a huge difference between Level 5 and Level 2? On our next budget flight we might be asking to see the pilot's license before we commit to buckling our seat belt.

Related Stories:
· Flybe Offers Free Return Tickets [Cheap Flights]
· Rules Stopped Pilot's Fog Landing [BBC]
· Flybe coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: mattingham]

Midwest Death Watch / Midwest Airlines / Airline Pilots / → All Tags

Midwest Pilots Convinced Service Will Suffer

Roughly 200 Midwest Airlines pilots rallied at Mitchell International in Milwaukee Thursday to protest upcoming layoffs and outsourcing. The troubled carrier, which recently got a cash infusion that could stave off bankruptcy, has decided to outsource some service to Republic Airlines, which will fly Embraer 170s instead of Boeing 717s.

One of the protesting pilots says that's not what passengers expect:

Midwest is going to be down to about 360 of the wide leather seats and 2,000 basically coach seats. The passenger is going to see a big difference in what kind of service they're going to receive.

Another pilot was more blunt:

They must think the public is stupid, and isn't going to notice.

Oh, we noticed!

Related Stories:
· Midwest Airlines Workers Protest Leasing Plan [J-S]
· Midwest Pilots Protest, Claim Service Will Suffer [WTMJ]
· Midwest Airlines coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Journal-Sentinel]