How AI lost the chance to let strike chief go

New Delhi: After the recent five-day agitation by Air India executive pilots, led by their representative Capt V K Bhalla (50), the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) must be ruing the day when, four years ago, they rejected Bhalla’s written request seeking permission to leave the company. In 2005, when the erstwhile Indian Airlines was conducting interviews for promotion of Commanders (senior pilots) to the management post of Deputy General Managers (DGMs), Bhalla refused to appear for an interview before a panel. If disqualified, he would have been ineligible for a promotion for at least a year. Bhalla demanded that he be promoted without appearing for an interview. When the management refused, Bhalla, in the first half of May 2005, wrote a letter to the management seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for leaving Indian Airlines for a suitable career progression in another private airline. As per the then Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) rules, a pilot had to serve a six-month notice period.
But in just over two months Indian Airlines agreed to Bhalla’s demand and promoted him, without an interview, to the executive post of DGM.
05/10/09  Smita Aggarwal/Indian Express

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Categories: Air India Domestic Oct 2009, NACIL Oct 2009