Air India on Wednesday cancelled three of its flights — two in the Chennai-Mumbai sector and one in Visakhapatnam sector owing to the strike by its employees.
The stir was withdrawn later in the evening.
Most of the passengers who were stranded approached the Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials and asked them for alternative arrangements.
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However, as AAI could not possibly have done anything about making alternative arrangements, its officials suggested that passengers utilise the rest room facility available with them for which a nominal charge is collected from the users.
A senior AAI officer said a majority of the enquiries they received related to cancellation of flights such as Chennai-New Delhi, Chennai-Mumbai and Chennai-Kolkata sectors.
The strike not only paralysed the movement of passengers, but also the cargo. According to AAI sources, the ground handling work in the cargo has been entrusted to the national carrier.
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Due to the strike the transportation of cargo from the aircraft was delayed by a few hours. Normally, soon after a flight lands, the cargo from the aircraft would reach the Cargo Complex within an hour. But this had been slowed down, the officer said.
Another officer said as far as Chennai was concerned, the ground handling of passenger aircraft was done by both private agencies and the national carrier. But, in the Cargo the entire work is entrusted with the national carrier. In Mumbai and New Delhi the ground handling work had been given to a private agency, the officer added.