Air India pilots` strike enters fourth day

NEW DELHI: Flagship carrier Air India`s woes deepened as it was forced to cancel most of its domestic flights by a pilots` strike over pay that entered its fourth day Saturday. The financially ailing state-run carrier, which says it has lost $6 million in revenues so far due to the strike, said it was operating just 39 domestic flights out of its regular 320, according to the Press Trust of India. The airline is "operating on only trunk routes" to major Indian cities, an Air India spokesman said. The airline, which at the start of the strike had been able to operate most flights, has also scaled back international operations. More than 800 pilots were on strike, defying management warnings of dismissal, while non-unionised pilots, asked by management to fill in for the strikers, have begun calling in sick in support of their colleagues. The airline, which has condemned the strike as "illegal, unfortunate and most irresponsible," has already sacked nine pilots and suspended six others.—AFP