Air India said that the decision of suspending the booking of tickets has been done to avoid inconvenience to the passengers as flights are being canceled due to ongoing agitation.

The airline had to cancel a number of morning flights after a number of pilots started reporting sick. The pilots are protesting against the 50 per cent cut in wages imposed by the management in productivity linked wages.

Around 180 executive pilots of Air India had reported sick forcing the airlines to cancel a number of flights. The management claims that the company has suffered a loss of 84 crore in last three days due to agitation as tickets have been cancelled and booking also came down.

The standoff between the management and pilots continues even though the Prime Minister's Office has also urged the two sides to break the deadlock.

Pilots of Air India are demanding that the cuts in Productivity Linked Incentives should be rolled back and they be paid their full dues. However, Air India management has stuck to its stand and maintained that in view of the financial crisis the cash-strapped airline needs to take drastic measures to save the airline.