Pilots on mass leave: 130 Jet Airways flights cancelled

At least 130 flights of Jet Airways were on Tuesday cancelled from the four major metros after a large chunk of pilots failed to

report for work protesting against sacking of two of their colleagues, a step termed as "sabotage of operations" by the airlines.

Passengers in Mumbai were the worst hit with 115 flights out of the total 345 failing to take off while at least 10 flights of Jet Airways and its subsidiary JetLite were cancelled in Delhi. In Chennai, six flights were cancelled, including three international, and four in Kolkata.

However, the morning flight of the private carrier from Kolkata for Dhaka took off as scheduled, Jet Airways officials said.

Hit by the crisis, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal met civil aviation secretary Madhavan Nambiar on Tuesday morning for about half-an-hour and is understood to have discussed the situation.

Ministry officials said the government was closely monitoring the situation.

Jet Airways in a press statement said that a section of the pilots have resorted to a "simulated strike by reporting sick".

"This organised activity is a planned sabotage of operations that will damage the airline's operations and inconvenience the travelling public," it said.

Jet Airways said all affected guests can get a full refund or rebook themselves on an alternate date without any cancellation or reissue charges, but passengers were not amused.