The domestic and international flight operations across the country were normal on Thursday but airport services were hit as the indefinite strike by airport employees against closure of Bangalore and Hyderabad airports entered the second day.

However, sanitation and baggage handling at the New Delhi airport was hit by the strike. Used coffee and tea cups, water bottles and waste paper could be seen littered every where as there was no one to clean the area.
Toilets were also stinking inconveniencing passengers. "The toilets are stinking and we cannot use them," said Mohd Yunis, who arrived in New Delhi from Dubai.

Meanwhile, the Airport Authority Employees Union (AAEU) branch secretary Pramod Kumar Sharma said, "we will continue with our movement."

The agitating employees took out a procession at the domestic and international terminal in New Delhi. They also put up tents at the Airport Authority of India office near Mahipalpur. The strike has had no impact on flight schedules, Delhi airport officials said.

Meanwhile in Kolkata, flight operations were normal but basic passenger services continued to be seriously disrupted in Kolkata, turning the entire airport into a litter zone on the second day of the indefinite non-cooperation movement by CITU-backed Airports Authority Employees union on Thursday.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) sources said that ten domestic flights, including five of Air India, left the airport this morning on time. Flight operations were also normal at the international terminal where a Thai Airways flight landed this morning.

Though water supply was partially restored at the airport this morning, toilets and floors were not cleaned inconveniencing the passengers.

Paper cups, waste food, cigarette butts and assorted rubbish were overflowing from dustbins and stinking toilets were keeping passengers off the area.

AAEU sources said they would review the situation later in the day and chalk out the future course of action.  AAI sources said they would hold a high level meteing to review the situation.

In Chennai, flight operations remain unaffected. Airport officials said 17 flights left for various destinations, including Delhi and Mumbai, while 13 arrived in the domestic sector and over 20 flights were operated as scheduled in the international sector up to 10 a.m.

However, waste has piled up at the international arrival terminal and domestic arrival and departure terminals with the maintenance workers participating in the agitation.

But there was no such problem in the international departure terminal as the work there was being done by private contractors.

The members of the Airports Authority of India Employees Union, who began the stir on Wednesday, assembled in front of the airport terminal and continued their protest. In Mumbai, an airport spokesman said flight and airport operations were unaffected.

Flight operations continued to be normal at the Bangalore Airport even as the non-cooperation stir launched by AAI Employees Joint Forum entered the second day.

AAI director Narendra Kaushal told PTI that "everything is fine and normal". There was also no disruption in the ground level services outsourced in the terminal building at the Bangalore airport.

All the vital operations, including the manning of the Air Traffic Control, in the Bangalore Airport are being controlled by HAL Authorities.

"There has been no significant effect on flight and airport operations," a spokesperson for Mumbai International Airport told PTI.

Officials at the critical Air Traffic Control have not joined the strike as they are not members of the union while the outsourced ground handling and housekeeping staff continued with their work.

In the event of shortage of staff for emergency services, personnel from Indian Air Force have been placed on standby, the spokesperson added.

Security has been beefed up as 479 Air Force personnel in 21 key airports across the country have been deployed and ESMA has been involved at the Delhi airport in the wake of the strike call.

The employees are protesting against moves to privatize some airports and demanding among other things a comprehensive pension scheme and immediate filling up of vacancies.