Mumbai: Air India (AI) on April 25 cancelled five flights from Mumbai following an agitation by the pilots' union.

The flights cancelled are to Dubai (AI 713), Delhi-London (AI 129), Delhi-Hong Kong (AI 310), Chennai-Singapore (AI 472) and Kuwait (AI 859), according to an AI official.

The airline is working out a contingency plan following the agitation by Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), which is demanding a certificate from the airlines that the accompanying crew have not flown into Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) affected region for the past 10 days.

An AI spokesman said flights to US via London and Paris by Boeing 747-400 are being operated behind schedule.

A few A310 flights have been affected because of non-availability of executive crew, he added.

Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussein on April 25 said IPG has not given a strike notice so far.

IPG is to meet civil aviation secretary K Roy Paul, who is also the chairman of Air India, the Minister said.

Air India spokesman Jitendra Bhargava said the meeting could take place on April 26.

Bhargava described as "untrue the reports that all Air India flights are being disrupted due to the pilots agitation".

He said, "Only three to four flights could be affected and there was a possibility that nearly half of the A301 flights operated by Air India could be cancelled following the strike."

Bhargava said the unionised pilots had "been creating problems for the past two weeks".

The strikers' first demand was that they could not fly to Hong Kong and Singapore, which are hit by the killer SARS disease, but "we managed to operate with the help of executive pilots", he said.

"Unionised pilots issued a directive on April 22 insisting that the (AI) management should certify that the crew members have not flown to countries like Singapore and Hong Kong in the preceding 10 days. We rejected the demand," Bhargava said.

"The pilots are coming to their duty and when we denied them the certificate it is only then that they walk off," he added.

PTI