An estimated 35 to 40 per cent of all domestic flights were cancelled on Thursday by various airlines on account of the day-long strike by airport employees inconveniencing passengers all-round.
Even though Airports Authority of India claimed the situation was 'normal and under control' at most of the airports, barring those in Kolkata and the North-East, flight operations were adversely affected during the 12-hour strike.
While cancellations ranged between 20 and 25 per cent of the flights, the number of flights bunched together by various domestic carriers effectively amounted to cancellation of another 10 to 15 per cent of the total number of flights, industry sources said.
While a large number of aircraft took off from Delhi's IGI Airport before the strike began at 0700 hours, the impact of disruption was felt when only about 11 flights departed in the first two hours after the strike began.
AAI officials declined to give specific figures on how many flights actually took off and how many were cancelled during the strike period.
Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, Air Sahara and Kingfisher Airlines have cancelled between 20 and 25 per cent of their daily services. The airlines were matching the number of flights with the passenger demand which was quite low during the strike period, the sources said.
Claiming that flight operations were 'normal' on Thursday, AAI Chairman K Ramalingam said the attendance of various categories of staff and many airports was 'thin' or 'negligible.'
While in Chennai 90 per cent did not report for duty, similar situation prevailed in Delhi, Mumbai and almost nil in Kolkata, Guwahati, Calicut, Goa and Ahmedabad.
All the 20 international flights from Delhi took off and 18 others landed at IGI airport before the strike begun at 0700 hours.
© 2026