By Rumman Ahmed BANGALORE--A government panel which oversees the Indian aviation industry will meet Tuesday, the country's aviation minister said Monday, and they are likely to discuss issues surrounding troubled national carrier Air India Ltd. In the latest in its long list of troubles, the airline is facing a staff crunch after it sacked 101 pilots who boycotted work for almost two months to protest the carrier's decision to train pilots who operate domestic flights on its Boeing Co. (BA) Dreamliner plane. Flying the yet-to-be-delivered Dreamliner, which will be used on overseas routes, would mean higher perks and salaries for the crew. The striking pilots claimed that training more pilots to fly long-haul planes will affect their careers. About 400 pilots called in sick every day starting May 7, forcing Air India to cancel dozens of flights each day and losing millions of dollars worth of revenue. India's aviation ministry said earlier that none of the sacked pilots would be reinstated, but later changed its stance. "We have said there'll be no victimization," Ajit Singh told reporters, adding the ministry will consider the pilots' re-employment case by case. Air India merged with the other national carrier, Indian Airlines, in August 2007, but has yet been unable to bring the two companies under a common salary and career structure. The failure to derive cost cuts and higher revenue from the merger, the burden of a $15 billion order for 111 aircraft and industry issues of fuel and interest costs have pushed the carrier into five years of continuous losses. Air India is trying to implement a business plan to trim losses while the government pores over a report which suggests means to merge the workforces at the two pre-merger companies. The airline is also yet to decide on an amount of compensation from Boeing, which the U.S. plane manufacturer owes every global customer for delays in Dreamliner deliveries. Mr. Singh said he expects a decision on the Boeing compensation soon. Write to Rumman Ahmed at rumman.ahmed@dowjones.com
