Air India suspends booking of tickets

"We have suspended the booking of tickets till further notice in order to save the passengers from inconvenience caused by the cancellations of flights due to the agitation," Air India Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav told reporters here on Tuesday.

The airline has also decided to cancel a majority of its morning flights, he said.
The national carrier is trying to normalise its operations after a section pilots started reporting "sick" in protest against the 50 per cent cut in their productivity-linked incentives and payment of flying allowance.

On the number of pilots who have reported sick in the last three days, Jadhav said "a total of 180 executive pilots -- 109 of erstwhile Indian Airlines and 71 of erstwhile international carrier Air India -- have reported sick."

The cash-strapped national carrier is incurring losses of around Rs 12 crore daily due to cancellation of flights and fall in the number of bookings.

"The number of bookings have gone down from 32,000 to 14,000 per day and we are incurring losses of 30 per cent of out total revenue of Rs 40 crore everyday," Jadhav said.