Air India pilots 'to end strike'

Flagship carrier Air India's flight operations were gradually returning to normal Saturday after pilots ended a 10-day strike that cost the ailing airline millions of dollars in lost revenues.Close to 700 pilots working for the domestic service of state-run Air India launched the strike to demand wage parity with colleagues flying international routes."The pilots are already reporting back to work," the airline's general manager K. Swaminathan told AFP on Saturday after union leaders announced an end to the walkout late the previous night.

A union said Saturday it was ready for unconditional talks to end a five-day walkout by pilots of national carrier Air India, as the airline fired 25 more strikers and cancelled more flights.Some 200 pilots from the debt-laden airline, which is facing mounting problems due to rising fuel prices, competition from low-cost rivals and a record of labour disputes, have been on strike since late Monday.

A week of industrial action by pilots at Air India has left hundreds of flights cancelled and thousands of passengers grounded.

Hundreds of pilots who used to work for Indian Airlines but now work for Air India go on strike to demand parity of pay following a merger.

An Air India pilot has angered his employers by appearing in a YouTube video rapping about poor working conditions and the carrier’s ageing flight attendants.

Pilots have been falling asleep in the cockpit because of shift patterns which can see them at the controls of an aircraft 23 hours after waking up, a study has found. The findings of a study by Simon Bennett of Leicester University, has rekindled fears that passenger safety could be put at risk by pilot fatigue.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Air India grounded its fleet of six Boeing 787 aircraft Thursday under orders from Indian aviation authorities after the jets were forced to halt flights in Japan and the U.S. because of safety concerns.