With more pilots joining the ongoing strike, Air India management on Thursday decided to suspend the bookings for the next five days in order to tackle the situation arising out of the stir.

About 200 executive pilots have also joined the strike by pilots associated with the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA). Taking this into account, the airline has decided to suspend the bookings for the next five days, a senior official said.

Earlier today, Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi met the Prime Minister to apprise him of the situation and later briefed the Cabinet.

Ravi is understood to have said that he had taken a firm view of the situation and fully supported the actions by the Air India management against the striking pilots.

He also apprised the Cabinet of festering issues that arose after the merger of erstwhile Indian Airlines with Air India and still remain unaddressed.

Earlier report:

Around 60 Air India flights were cancelled while several others delayed on the second day of the pilots' strike which continued despite the Delhi High Court directing them to return to work.

In Delhi, 33 domestic and five international flights to Kathmandu, Kabul and Dubai were cancelled as the airline management decided to operate only those flights for which cabin crew as well as adequate pilots were available.

Similarly, unavailability of cockpit crew forced the national carrier to cancel around 19 flights, including two international ones, out of Mumbai.

"These cancellation have been done as per our contingency plan under which we had decided to operate only those flights for which pilots and cabin crew were available," an Air India official said.

Related story

AI declares strike illegal, sacks 6 pilots

Air India today sacked six leaders of striking pilots demanding pay hike and derecognised their association even as the Delhi High Court asked the 800-odd pilots to call off their agitation and resume work in larger public interest.

The services of ICPA leaders, including its president Capt A S Bhinder and general secretary Capt Rishabh Kapur, were terminated by the management, senior airline officials said. Two other agitating pilots were suspended.

Declaring the strike as illegal, the management derecognised the ICPA and sealed its offices in Delhi and Mumbai.

Following an urgent hearing of AI management's plea against the strike, Justice Gita Mittal of the Delhi High Court barred the pilots from resorting to any kind of demonstration and asked them to resume work in "larger public interest."

Addressing a press conference, Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said AI's action against striking leaders was "right" and asserted that ICPA's demands cannot be accepted.

"They (ICPA) cannot dictate terms to us," the minister said even as he appealed to the striking pilots to cooperate and help the airline come out of its crisis.

At least 24 AI flights were cancelled since midnight including several on the Delhi-Mumbai sector and those to Kathmandu, Bangkok, Raipur, Aurangabad, Srinagar, Hyderabad, Nagpur and Leh.

Passengers had harrowing time with several flights getting delayed by over three hours.

While the management asked the striking pilots to give up their "irresponsible and unreasonable" stance and return to the negotiating table, the agitators said they were focussing on the "mismanagement" that had resulted in the financial losses to the airline and demanded a CBI probe.

To tide over the crisis, the national carrier has decided to rope in 150 management or executive pilots to operate the flights, the officials said.

No-frill carrier SpiceJet, in a statement, said it had directed its teams across all airports to accept and accommodate Air India passengers on request from the national carrier.

Terming the strike by its pilots as "unfortunate and ill-advised", Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav said, "now when such aggressive efforts are underway to resolve issues concerning every section of the employees, this abrupt action by the ICPA was certainly uncalled for.

"Why are some pilots being impatient, being irresponsible, being unreasonable, being adamant on tarnishing the image of the company and being totally unconcerned towards the convenience of our esteemed patrons and passengers", Jadhav said in an open letter to all employees.

The airline CMD said "the ICPA's midnight decision to go on strike is unfortunate and ill-advised. They had joined reconciliation process by attending the proceedings/hearings being conducted by the Central Labour Commissioner.

"They had given a commitment, including to the High Court, that they would not precipitate the situation by causing disruption. They were also expected to present their case before the Expert Committee led by Justice (retd) Dharmadhikari ? which began functioning this week and have scheduled meetings/hearing even today".

Jadhav told the pilots "take up your issues with Justice Dharmadhikari Committee. Make your voices heard. You have the management's support for resolution of your issues. But let's be positive and reasonable".

Late last night, the ICPA gave the letter to the management intimating their decision to go ahead with the strike, after the tripartite conciliation talks before the Chief Labour Commissioner failed.

The ICPA, which has a strength of over 800 pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines, held the CMD "solely responsible for the financial mess" in the airline and "sabotaging" its future.

The ICPA General Secretary, who was sacked today, said that prior to the merger, Air India and Indian Airlines had a loss Rs 455 crore and Rs 280 crore respectively, which rose to Rs 16,000 crore within three years and that too after hiring consultancy firm Deloitte at a cost of Rs 90 crore.

Kapur said that "the management's intention seems very well scripted -- to buy new airplanes, upgrade the machinery (like SITA, SAT, IOCC) at a whopping Rs 800 crore and kill the morale of the employees so that they agitate, and then make way to sell the airline in distress."

The ICPA leader also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to review the appointment of the "high headed and dishonest management" to restore the past glory of the airline.

"The Government of India has all the machinery and tools to investigate all the shortcomings of this management and hold them accountable. We, the ICPA, now demand a CBI inquiry or any appropriate body to inquire into the scams of the airlines," Kapur said in the letter.

The agitating pilots, all from the erstwhile Indian Airlines, have demanded pay parity with their counterparts in Air India, saying their fixed salary component was much lower than the latter's.

Air India now has a strength of over 1,200 pilots with ICPA having about 800 and the remaining 400 who mostly operate international flights owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots' Guild.

Earlier Story :

20 flights cancelled, AI derecognises pilot's union

About 800 pilots belonging to the erstwhile Indian Airlines went on a strike early Wednesday demanding pay parity with Air India pilots and better working conditions, leading to cancellation of over 20 flights and disruption of many others by several hours.

In a swift and tough response, the Air India management declared the strike illegal, derecognised the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) and sealed its offices in Delhi and Mumbai.

To tide over the crisis, AI has decided to rope in 150 management pilots -- executive pilots -- to operate the flights, an airline official said.

The ICPA gave the letter intimating about the strike to AI last night after conciliation talks with the management before the Chief Labour Commissioner failed.

The 800-odd striking pilots belong to the erstwhile Indian Airlines and owe allegiance to the ICPA. The merged entity--Indian Airlines and Air India--has about 1,200 pilots.

The remaining 400 pilots who mostly operate international flights belong to the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG).

Passengers had a torrid time with flight schedules going haywire and getting little information about when they can take off. At least 20 AI flights were cancelled since midnight.

These included AI 469 Del-Raipur via Nagpur, AI 214 Del- Kathmandu, AI 216 Kathmandu-Del, Del-Bangkok, Del-Srinagar and Del-Leh. Passengers of two flights to Mumbai were accomodated in one flight.

Eight flights from Delhi and 11 from Mumbai were cancelled this morning while several others were delayed by more than three hours.

"We have derecognised the ICPA, the strike is illegal and they have committed contempt of court. We are likely to move the court soon," AI spokesperson said.

The ICPA offices in Delhi and Mumbai have been sealed early this morning.

The ICPA claims that while the Air India pilots enjoy a big fixed salary component, the same is almost minuscule for the former IA pilots.

The Association claims that while their entire pay package depends on the hours they fly every day, the airlines has been curtailing the number of flights by 30 to 40 per cent.

"The management has appealed to the pilots to restrain themselves and not go in for the irresponsible act, especially when the process of conciliation is on," the AI spokesperson said.

He said the Government, the Civil Aviation Ministry and all stakeholders are seriously involved in resolving the issue.

A three-member Justice Dharmadhikari committee, formed to look into HR related issues of Air India, has started functioning from this Monday and it is expected to submit its recommendations in three months, he said.

The ICPA decided to go on strike following breakdown in talks involving the association, the airlines management and the Chief Labour Commissioner. Talks were being held over a period of several weeks.

The Association claimed that the management has violated the memorandum of settlement signed in November 2009 on implementing the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

"The management has instigated us to go on a strike so that they can derecognise our union. They have done it in case of two major unions -- AIR Corporation Employees Union and the union representing the aircraft engineers," ICPA president Capt.A S Bhinder said.

The ICPA had given strike notice on February 23 demanding better working conditions and fixed pay component.

The union, which had threatened to go on strike from March 9, had deferred their agitation till March 15 following tripartite talks with the carrier's management and the CLC.

Later, the Delhi High Court restrained them from going on strike from March 16 since the conciliation process had started.