Mumbai, Nov 17 A group of Air India pilots, owing allegiance to the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), staged a silent protest march here today over a delay in payment of salaries and allowances.

The ICPA, a non-executive body formed by 800 erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots, staged a silent protest, holding placards, outside the domestic airport here.

"We have been negotiating, we have been negotiating every time we have walked the mile. ICPA has been a very responsible union. Last 4-5 months we have had almost 30-40 meetings with the management on turnaround. Nothing comes out of these turnaround meetings, they are juts a farce. (Their) One line agenda, one line agenda blame the employees. I want to highlight one point; we are not paid regularly for the last 3-4 months. Inspite of that every union has seen to that our on-time performance has gone up, why? Doesn't that show dedication from the employees? Inspite of not being paid if I can give you better all-time performance, you treat me well, I'll treat you well," said Abu Ansari, Vice President of Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA).

The ICPA members have given an ultimatum to go on strike on November 24, if their flying allowances and other salary arrears of the past two months are not paid to them.

Ansari said that a final decision about the strike on November 24 would be taken only after meeting the Labour Commissioner in Delhi.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had recently announced that Air India officials would by December receive equity of 8 billion rupees.

A decision would be taken on relaxing the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) after reviewing of the industry, he had added.

Earlier in October this year, the union had put down the proposal of Patel that his ministry would back Air India with up to 50 billion rupees, if the carrier made the same amount through cost cuts and other measures. (ANI)