Air-India cancels five flights from Mumbai

Air India on Friday cancelled five flights from Mumbai following an agitation by the pilots' union over SARS.

The airline is working out a contingency plan following the agitation by Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), which is demanding a certificate from the airlines that the accompanying crews have not flown into SARS-affected regions for the past 10 days.

The flights cancelled are to Dubai (AI 713), Delhi-London (AI 129), Hong Kong (AI 310), Singapore (AI 472) and Kuwait (AI 859), an A-I official said.

Flights to the US via London and Paris by Boeing 747-400s are being operated, but behind schedule while a few A310 flights have been affected because of non-availability of executive crew, he added.

Indications are that flights to the west (the Gulf, US, Europe) would be operated, but those to the east (East Asia) may be affected.

Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussein said the IPG has not given a strike notice so far.

Its representatives are to meet Civil Aviation Secretary K Roy Paul, who is also the chairman of Air-India, the minister said.

Air India spokesman Jitendra Bhargava said the meeting could take place on Saturday.

Bhargava said the IPG pilots had 'been creating problems for the past two weeks'.

Initially, they said they could not fly to Hong Kong and Singapore, which are hit by the SARS outbreak.

But "we managed to operate the services with the help of executive pilots," he said.

"On April 22, the pilots issued a directive insisting that the (A-I) management certify that crew members have not flown to countries like Singapore and Hong Kong in the preceding ten days. We rejected the demand," Bhargava said.

"The pilots are reporting to duty but when we deny them a certificate, they walk off," he added.

Bhargava described as 'untrue' reports that the agitation had disrupted all Air-India flights.

"Only three to four flights could be affected and there is a possibility that nearly half of the A310 flights operated by Air-India could be cancelled following the strike," he said.

IPG treasurer Mahesh Gulbani said, "We are not on strike. We have just requested the management to provide information whether the crew flying with us have been to Hong Kong and Singapore in the last ten days."

"But they are deliberately denying us this information," he said.