Air India News: 4 Air India flights were cancelled on Monday as pilots' strike entered day 7 of the agitation, media reports said. 8 Air India international and 6 domestic flights were cancelled on Monday. 10 flights from Delhi, 3 from Mumbai and 1 from New York cancelled causing inconvenience to hundreds of passengers.

On Sunday, union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh acknowledged the fact that Air India’s merger with Indian Airlines did not go as “planned” and that “something seriously” had gone wrong.  “Obviously it (the merger) didn’t go as planned. My job now is to see what the current situation is, learn from past mistakes and work to see that Air India succeeds,” Singh told a TV channel.

The sackings and the AI management’s move to approach the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to cancel the flying licences of 11 pilots leading the agitation have pushed the striking pilots to a corner. They are now hoping the Centre will reverse its decision. In May 2011, 7 IA pilots were sacked when they had gone on strike. They were reinstated when the strike was called off. “This time things are different,” a senior official said.