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As schedules of national carrier Air India were disrupted with over 100 pilots reporting sick since midnight, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Tuesday reacted strongly, saying the pilot-strike is illegal, especially at time when the national carrier is making big losses despite a huge infusion of public money. "They are free to come forward with their grievances but they can't just call in sick. The money that the government gives to Air India depends on performances; there's a time period involved. This strike is illegal," Singh told media. "The airline's financial condition is still bad and they are still not out of woods," Singh said, adding that the pilots should remember that the airline is receiving a bailout of Rs 30,000 crore from the government to keep it flying. Singh also said that the airline management had not received any notification for a strike and that the pilots had all just reported sick. Asked if there would be any action taken against the pilots he said, "The management will look at the rules of Air India and decide what action is to be taken," Singh said. "There are many methods to deal with their demands but going on strike is not one of them," he added. Meanwhile, passengers, who were left stranded at Amritsar airport, expressed their ire over the management's apathy. "I was going to Toronto and I was very disappointed in this flight because they only told us like five minutes before. Now we have to do immigration. We have to do everything again and it's really annoying. We don't know about the stay. They have like one bus, we don't know if we are going to be here all night or what's going on. It's very irritating," said Jaspreet Kaur, a passenger. " They had given us the boarding passes and then we were informed that the pilots have gone on a strike. How come the pilots have gone on a strike at the last moment?" added Navneet, another passenger. According to reports, over 100 Air India pilots in Delhi and Mumbai, who are associated with the Indian Pilots Guild have called in sick and the number is expected to go up by another 200 today. Four international flights have been cancelled so far today. These include flights from Delhi to Chicago , from Mumbai to New Jersey, from Delhi to Toronto and from Delhi to Hong Kong.

Ajit Singh terms Air India pilots' strike illegal