National carrier Air India has called a meeting of its two pilot unions in New Delhi on Monday to discuss various issues, including integration of unions and salaries, sources said on Sunday.

The meeting assumes significance as it comes days before Air India formally gets inducted as the 27th member of the global airlines' club, Star Alliance, later this week.

Celebrating its 60th year of flying to Singapore, Air India is adding another Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' aircraft on its Singapore-Chennai-Mumbai sector from next month.

"The Indian national carrier has seen a big increase in passengers on its latest aircrafts from Singapore to India," Country Manager Nirbhik Narang told PTI today.

Air India and Jet Airways have started offering an additional four per cent incentive since last week to agents for selling business class seats on domestic routes. The move to increase sales comes ahead of Tata- Singapore Airlines’ entry in the domestic market.

The additional incentives are being offered for sale till September-end. Air India and Jet Airways also offer one per cent regular commission. Agents also earn productivity-linked commission for meeting sales targets.

A reported bomb threat on a Delhi-bound Air India plane from Kochi, with 164 people on board, which landed under emergency conditions at the airport here, was a hoax, police said today.

The Airbus 320 (flight AI-047) was searched "thoroughly" after its emergency landing late last night and no bomb or explosive material was detected, Bangalore Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Kamal Pant said.

The Bombay High Court has directed four office-bearers of the Aviation Industry Employees’ Guild to resume duties by July 7, in a move that supports Air India’s drive against absenteeism.

The state-owned airline had this month asked 11 office-bearers across three trade unions to report for work immediately after withdrawing a ‘full-time release’ concession for discharging union responsibilities.

The Centre is close to finalising a short-term strategy to strengthen the burgeoning civil aviation sector, including slashing taxes on jet fuel, civil aviation minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju said on Tuesday. The minister also formally announced Air India's membership into Star Alliance and added that the partnership is expected to boost the country's national carrier's revenue by five per cent. Air India passengers will enjoy alliance benefits from July 11.

Air India Ltd has joined the Star Alliance group of carriers, a spokesman said on Tuesday, a move that could help boost revenues at the loss-making state-run airline.

Executives at Star Alliance met with Air India officials in London on Monday and agreed for the airline, which has been in talks to join since last year, to become its 27th member, Air India spokesman Praveen Bhatnagar told Reuters.

Air India has begun terminating services of cabin crew members who have not reported for duty for six months at a stretch. Since February it has issued letters to 45 employees and plans to send out another 59 letters soon.

With this action, the state-run airline has shipped out 129 staff since last year.

Air India has withdrawn the special concession given to trade union leaders to do union activities on a full-time basis. This means that about 15 union leaders who were exempt from regular duty will now have to resume work.

Air India’s industrial relations department communicated this decision last week through a letter addressed to the office bearers of Aviation Industry Employees Guild (AIEG), Air India Employees Union and Air India Service Engineers Association. The unions have challenged the move and served a legal notice on the airline, asking it to take back the decision.

AIR INDIA has expressed concern over the recent increase in the bilateral seat allocation for Abu Dhabi and Dubai in a presentation to the new aviation minister on Tuesday, said officials with the airline.

“We have also raised our concerns about the launch of two new airlines that will soon start flying in the country,” the official said.

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