The Delhi high court on Friday refused to stay the Air India management order derecognising the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), which is spearheading the ongoing pilots' stir for pay parity.

The court, however, said that derecognition will not come in the way of any dialogue between the management and the striking pilot's body.

Refusing to accede to ICPA's plea to revoke its derecognition, justice S Murlidhar issued notice to Air India Ltd and sought its response on the plea by the pilots' body by July 16, the next date of hearing.

The 800-odd pilots, who belong to the erstwhile Indian Airlines and owe allegiance to the ICPA, went on strike from midnight of April 26, alleging that there are differences in salaries and working conditions of pilots of Indian Airlines and Air India which were merged in 2007.

ICPA was derecognised by the Air India's management after pilots began their stir.

"The derecognition will not come in the way of any dialogue between the management and the striking pilot's body," justice Murlidhar said.

Justice Geeta Mittal of the high court had on Wednesday asked the pilots to call off their agitation and resume work in "larger public interest."

Justice Mittal had also pulled up the management for the delay in considering the issue of pay parity but had asked the striking pilot to withdraw their strike forthwith.

But justice Mittal on Thursday issued notices to the ICPA office bearers seeking their replies as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be launched against them for defying court's order to resume work.

The judge had warned that property of their trade union ICPA will be attached if they did not return to work immediately.

She had issued notices on a plea by the Air India management, seeking launch of contempt of court proceedings against the agitating pilots.

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

The pilots have contended 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.

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Air India operating only 50 out of 320 flights, passengers stuck

As the strike by Air India pilots entered the third day on Friday, the national carrier drastically reduced its operation to 50 flights across its network against the regular 320 as all executive pilots joined the stir.

"Under the contingency plan, we are operating 50 flights across the network today," an Air India official said.

From Delhi, the national carrier will be operating just 10 flights and almost an equal number from Mumbai to metro cities.

In Mumbai, the airline has decided to use three wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft on the Bombay-Delhi-Ahmedabad- Bombay and Bombay-Ahmedabad-Bombay sector to accommodate more passengers, the official said.

AI has decided to operate four special services using Air India Express from Mumbai flying Boeing 737 on Bombay-Abu Dhabi-Bombay, Chennai-Singapore-Chennai, Cochin-Calicut-Cochin and Calicut-Dubai-Calicut routes.

Additionally, a jumbo service will operate between Bombay-Dubai-Delhi-Bombay, the spokesperson said.

With both pilots and management refusing to budge from their position, passengers continued to bear the brunt of the agitation. Most of the flyers have cancelled their tickets on Air India while some others were being accommodated in other airlines.

According to Air India spokesperson, the cash strapped national carrier is losing Rs four crore per day due to the strike. However, sources said, this figure might be more as the airline has liabilities towards payment of instalments of new and leased aircraft and the salary of its employees.

Executive pilots also joined the agitation yesterday and started to report sick. The management has terminated the services of seven pilots and suspended six others.

"We are extending our 100 per cent support to our agitating younger brothers in the ICPA, over 300 executive pilots have reported sick and now it is up management to take action against all 800 pilots," said a senior pilot.

Out of 69 executive pilots, 68 had on Thursday reported sick in Delhi and at other bases.

On Thursday, the management initiated contempt of court proceedings against the pilots in the Delhi High Court but the pilots remained unfazed. Also, the conciliation talks between the management and the agitating pilots also ended in failure as both were not ready to budge from their position.

Around 800 pilots, of erstwhile Indian Airlines, associated with Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) are on strike since Tuesday midnight demanding fixed salary, removal of AI CMD and CBI probe into alleged mismanagement.