Air India, the state-owned carrier, had to cancel over 20 flights on Thursday from Delhi and Mumbai, as the
agitation by its pilots entered the third day
despite a Delhi High Court order.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday had declared the strike as illegal, but the pilots remained defiant and said the agitation would continue till their demands were met.
"Three international departures from Mumbai and eight from Delhi have been cancelled due to non-availability of pilots", an Air India official said.
Passengers were inconvenienced as airline officials were unable to accommodate them in others flights or give any concrete information on when their flights will take off.
About 12 international arrivals at the Delhi airport in the national capital were also cancelled, according to the website of Delhi airport.
From Delhi flights to Frankfurt, Shanghai, Toronto, New Jersey, Chicago and Seoul were cancelled while Air India flights to New York, Riyadh and Shanghai were not operating from Mumbai in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.
Taking a strong view of the agitation, the Air India
management had on Wednesday sacked 26 more pilots. With this the number of sacked pilots has reached 36.
The pilots owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), which has a strength of about 250 pilots, have been protesting against the rescheduling of Boeing 787 Dreamliner training.
Indian Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh had on Wednesday told the pilots, "if you have grievances, we can talk, but discussions and disruptions cannot take place simultaneously. They should withdraw their strike and apologise to the passengers."
He said the government has "a back-up plan (to deal with strike)...We can downsize...If employees are not interested that Air India should expand, then government is not going to provide money to it."
The pilots'
strike issue had also figured in Parliament on Wednesday with members asking Government to ensure that concrete steps are taken to revive the ailing airline.
With PTI inputs
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