The deadlock between the agitating employees and the civil aviation ministry over the impending closure of the existing airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad continued though.

Thanks to a key decision taken by the ministry to deploy 479 Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel at 21 important airports across the country and invoking of the ESMA at the Delhi airport, there were no reports of flight delays from major airports.

There were reports of minor delays in arrival or departures of a few aircraft in some airports.
Reports from Delhi, Mumbai and even Kolkata, the strong-base of the Forum, indicated that operation of flights was near-smooth. There was, however, complaint of dirty toilets, non-availability of trolleys and hitches at conveyor belts at the baggage screening points.

Flight operations remained unaffected at Bangalore’s HAL Airport as well. The Airport Authority of India Employees’ Joint Forum claimed that about 14,000 employees are on “indefinite non-cooperation movement” since Tuesday midnight affecting operations at 127 airports. At the end of the day, airport and ministry officials heaved a sigh of relief over the smooth sail of operations.

Employees staged demonstrations before airports in Delhi, Mumbai and other places.

Dharna in B’lore
More than 100 employees staged a dharna at the HAL Airport. Senior HAL Airport officials said flight movements remained unaffected as critical operations like the ATC and fire-fighting are being managed by HAL, while baggage and luggage-handling have been outsourced to respective airlines.

But the officials warned that if the strike continued, it could affect flight schedules.