The country-wide 12-hour strike call given by the central public sector trade unions left air services in the country largely unaffected.
The country?s two busiest airports, New Delhi and Mumbai, were barely affected as they were privately run and had a contingency plan in place. The Kolkata airport was the worst affected with most international and domestic flights scheduled for take-off or landing on Wednesday either postponed or eventually cancelled.
Nearly 15,000 workers ? baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff ? at 127 government-run airports walked off their jobs early Wednesday morning.
In Delhi, Airports Authority of India officials said going by the number of flights across the country, the schedules were running ?almost normally?.
Besides flights to Kolkata, some others to Mumbai, Pune and Guwahati were also cancelled because of the strike, they said.
In Mumbai, even though hundreds of AAI employees staged a demonstration at the domestic, international and cargo terminals demanding a better pay and job security, the officials of the Mumbai International Airport Ltd said there were not much disruptions in the operations. However all the flights to Kolkata were cancelled on Wednesday.
At Kolkata?s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, now being modernised and expanded, employees evicted the 7,000-odd people working for various airlines and support services, shut down the power supply and locked the gates.
Various airlines, including international ones, cancelled or rescheduled a total of 295 flights to and from the city. Only five domestic and two international flights could operate, as they were timed before the strike took effect.
But life was normal at 30,000-feet above sea level, where 750 aircraft ply daily along the air corridor over Kolkata to east and south-east Asia. The strikers spared the air traffic control (ATC) staff, which are in any case categorised as essential under law.
The strike did not affect the Bangalore International Airport too as majority of operations are handled by private organisations. Airport sources said AAI has deployed its officers to man the ATC, the only service AAI staff control at the BIA.
?So far there is no problem. All services are normal?, an official of the airport said in Bangalore. Kingfisher Airlines and its affiliate Deccan Aviation have canceled at least 15 flights to and from Kolkata.
Other airlines like Jet Airways, Indigo, SpiceJet and JetLite too have cancelled some flights. The Indian Air Force has deployed 250 skilled personnel to maintain safety and fire services at 21 airfields across the country.
The 12-hour strike was expected to end on Wednesday evening, said MK Ghoshal, general secretary of the Airport Authority Employees Union.