Kolkata likely to be worst affected while Delhi and Mumbai are ready with contingency plans.
Almost all flights to and from Kolkata and some other eastern cities like Bagdogra are likely to be cancelled tomorrow as a result of the proposed strike by the employees of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Airline executives said flights to and from Delhi and Mumbai airports could also be delayed but cancellations were unlikely.
Around 15,000 AAI employees across 127 airports, who are part of the Airports Authority Employees Union (AAEU), will join the major trade unions in their one-day strike against the “anti-people” policies of the United Progressive Alliance government.
Indian carriers Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet, and international carrier Singapore Airlines confirmed they would cancel almost all their flights to Kolkata, which sees around 190 flight movements (domestic arrivals and departures) a day.
“Twenty out of 22 departures will be cancelled. We have two early morning flights to Port Blair and Mumbai which depart before 6 am, when the strike starts. These will not be cancelled,” said an Air India spokesperson from Kolkata.
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Apart from Kolkata, where the strike starts at 6 am, AAI employees at most other airports will start their strike at 7 am.
“There will also be a bandh across the city and hence none of our employees will be able to come for work. Hence there will be no operations from Kolkata tomorrow. We have a similar case in Bagdogra, where all our flights will be cancelled,” said Samyukth Sridharan, chief commercial officer of budget carrier SpiceJet.
IndiGo executives said the airline’s 11 departures from Kolkata would be cancelled.
International flights in Kolkata also stand to be affected as a result of the strike.
“Due to the strike, we have rescheduled our Kolkata flight to August 21. The flight, which was to arrive at the airport on the night of August 20, will now arrive on the 21st,” said a Singapore Airlines spokesperson.
Other AAI-handled airports like Chennai might be affected because of the strikes. Airline executives said that flights movements in airports like Delhi would also be affected although none of the flights might be cancelled.
The Delhi airport is operated by the GMR-led consortium, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), and only the non-executive AAI officials would go on strike.
As such, functions like housekeeping, fire safety and ground safety would be affected. For instance, housekeeping in the domestic terminal 1A which, is dedicated to Air India and Kingfisher, is done by the AAI, unlike the domestic terminal 1B where the function is outsourced.
“We have a contingency plan in place. We will do rostering of staff adequately so that no inconvenience takes place,” said a DIAL executive.
Mumbai airport executives too spoke of similar contingency measures. “We have already outsourced most of our housekeeping and it is not done by the AAI. For other activities we will increase the work timings of our employees so that they can replace the striking AAI workforce,” said a spokesperson of Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), the GVK-led private consortium which is operating the Mumbai airport.