NEW DELHI, Nov 17: For the seventeenth day in succession, thousands of passengers continued to sweat it out in claustrophobic aeroplane cabins as the striking Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) refused to let planes either land or take off on time.

While average delays were up to a couple of hours, a few flights were delayed by as much as five hours -- Span Air's Mumbai-Pune flight, originally scheduled to land yesterday, topped the list with a delay of just over 24 hours!

While most airlines de-planed passengers after they stewed in the cabins for an hour or so, others circled above airports, waiting for permission to land. One of the few unaffected flights in a day of complete chaos, fortunately for the United Front (UF) which held its crucial steering committee meeting in the Capital today, was the special chartered flight for Andhra Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. ``He was flown in by a special flight which landed on time,'' is what party MP Renuka Chowdhary had to say when The Indian Express met her.

With the Government somewhat pre-occupied with other crises, and the ATCs scenting blood, the strike is likely to intensify in the coming days as talks between the ATCs and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) failed today. While the ATCs refused to even consider the AAI offer, Minister of State Jayanti Natrajan will meet them tomorrow to try to sort out the issue.

While the Government is trying to bring in the Air Force's ATCs, this may not help as their training is somewhat different and it will be difficult to replace ATCs across the country.

AAI has offered the ATCs a 100 per cent increase in their current rating allowance which they say was revised only three years back. The ATCOs were also offered corresponding increase in the stress allowance. ``The meeting lasted for over two hours and the offer is one-fifth of the Julka Committee recommendations. We are not going to consider this offer and the situation would continue to be the same,'' said secretary general of ATCOs guild B Shekhar. The remuneration offer would mean an extra Rs 200 to Rs 2,400, said an ATC.

The closed-door meeting was attended by seven members of the Central Executive Council of the ATC guild and five members of the AAI - chairman Ranjan Chatterjee, member (Planning) K Ramalingam, member (Operations) Roby Lal, member (Personal) S K Narula, member (Finance) Prasad Rao and Director (Operations) P C Goel.

The ATCOs are going to intensify their agitation by stopping all departures for four hours from November 21 and later even strike work. ``Even if we work-by-rule safety would not be neglected,'' said a controller.

Julka Committee recommendations would mean AAI shelling out Rs 13 crore as remuneration for the 850 ATCOs. ``There are over 20,000 employees with AAI who are also demanding remuneration and it is impossible to comply with these demands,'' said AAI member (Planning) K Ramalingam adding that they hope the matter would be settled through a dialogue.

But while the Government continues to hope, the situation at all the country's airports is threatening to get completely out of control. Twenty-one out of the 27 Indian Airlines flights out of Delhi were delayed by anywhere between 10 minutes and five-and-a-half hours. Indian Airlines officials said, ``We have been the worst hit. International flights do not land during the day so they are not too affected by the go-slow. We are losing crore of rupees on just circling above the airports and providing refreshments to passengers because of the delay.''

``We are facing immense problems at the ground as passengers blame us for the delay. Costs to the airline have escalated as there are many people who miss connecting flights and are to be put up in hotels,'' said a Jet Airways staff adding that nearly all of the 16 daily departures were delayed and and the schedule all over the country was disrupted.

Mumbai airport which sees roughly 350 flights landing and taking off every day witnessed similar scenes.

All Air India flights leaving Mumbai airport between midnight and noon today were delayed by 15 to 65 minutes according to a spokesperson. AI's Mumbai-Trivandrum flight scheduled for 6:55 am left 65 minutes behind schedule.

Kochi airport witnessed delays of up to two hours, while Nagpur reported delays of close to three hours. Jet Airways daily flight from Mumbai has been arriving late by an average of 2 hours and 45 minutes. Apart from the delays, costs for airlines have also begun to mount as they spend hours on the tarmac, circling above airports. A Boeing 747 circling overhead for an hour burns up additional fuel of roughly Rs 1 lakh -- an Airbus 300 consumes roughly double the amount.

Fortunately for the country, tourist bookings have still not been affected too badly. But with the delays in flights increasing from around 15 minutes when the strike began to an average of two hours now, that's only a matter of time.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.