Airport employees began a relay hunger strike to protest against the privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports.

Batches of 15-20 employees began the relay hunger strike as part of the countrywide agitation to protest the privatisation of the airports, Nitin Jadhav, general secretary of Airport Authority Employees' Union, said in Mumbai on Wednesday.

The strike will continue till midnight of September 25 to be followed by one-day mass casual leave on September 26.

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He said AAEU would decide on the future course of action of agitation depending on the response of the government after September 26.

The two metro airports, which contribute 70 per cent of the revenues to AAI, would pose a big question mark on the terms and conditions of the employees under the future management, Jadhav said.

He said after leasing out these two airports followed by those at Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Goa, AAI would be left with only loss-making airports to handle, specially when the AAI was incurring an additional expenditure of over Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) for inducting the Central Industrial Security Force.

Jadhav said equity participation by Indian financial institutions could provide the necessary financial impetus to upgrade the four metro airports to world-class standards.

Globally, 60-70 per cent of the total airport revenues were from non-aeronautical sources whereas in the case of AAI at international airports it was a mere 22 per cent, he added.