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The Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel (right), and the Air India Chairman & MD, Mr V. Thulasidas, addressing a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday. - Shashi Ashiwal

Mumbai/Delhi , Sept. 29

AIRPORTS across the country operated to a scaled down schedule on Thursday on account of the one-day strike called by the Airports Authority of India Joint Workers Forum to protest against the Government decision to privatise the Delhi and Mumbai airports.

In view of the strike and lower passenger demand for travel, major domestic airlines had already announced an alternative schedule for flights. All the major airlines including Jet Airways, Indian Airlines and Air Sahara had announced that they would not only be combining flights but would also be cancelling some of their normal operations.

The Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, said the airport authorities were able to ensure normal air traffic. However, operations at Kolkata airport were affected to a greater degree due to the impact of the strike called by the Left parties against the Government's economic policies.

Addressing newspersons here, Mr Patel said airport operations did not compromise on safety requirements, and both the ATC and the fire department functioned normally.

Mr Sudhir Kumar, Director, Mumbai Airport, said the AAI had put a contingency plan in place to tide over the shortage of staff. Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., the airport had handled 220 flights, which was near normal.

IA, Sahara suffer in Kolkata: "The flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad operated normally. However, flights from and to Kolkata were affected. We were able to operate only two flights from Kolkata including one to Delhi and another to Mumbai," an IA spokesperson said.

Similarly, spokespersons for both Jet Airways and Air Sahara said the airlines operated to the schedule announced earlier. "Except for 20 flights to Kolkata that were cancelled, all other flights were operated as announced," a senior Air Sahara official said.

"Our operations were as scheduled and were peaceful," a Jet Airways official said.

Rescheduling/cancellation: Meanwhile, an official statement issued by the Government said that till 3 p.m. of the 68 departures scheduled from Delhi airport, 54 flights operated while eight were cancelled, four flights were rescheduled and two were clubbed.

All flights from Mumbai and Chennai airports were operating normally, the statement added. The Chennai airport saw 42 flights depart and 12 flights arrive till early this afternoon.

Normal operations were reported from airports around the country including Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Kochi, Jaipur, Guwahati, Goa, Lucknow, Jammu and Varanasi.

Ministers' assurance: Mr Patel assured the AAI employees that the proposed upgrade of the Mumbai and Delhi airports would not undermine their job security. However, the Government was determined to go through with the modernisation process, as both airports needed major capital infusion to emerge as world-class facilities, he said.

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Scaled down operations at airports — Traffic near normal in most places; service to Kolkata hit

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