Patna, May 2: Air India (AI) has decided not to book fresh tickets till May 6, with no solution to the ongoing strike of the pilots of the government-owned carrier in sight. Earlier, the airlines had suspended booking of fresh tickets till May 3.

“We received instructions in this regard in the morning,” an AI official said.

Majority of 1,200 AI pilots are striking work from April 27. One of the major demands of these pilots, most of whom owe allegiance to the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) is that of pay parity with pilots of other national carriers.

Like other major routes, the pilots’ strike has adversely affected operations of AI flights on the Patna-Delhi route and on Monday, just one of the three flights operated. The flight (IC 407/IC 408), which operates in the afternoon in normal times, reached Patna at 5.15pm and took off for Delhi at 6pm. Around 40 passengers, who were booked in different flights of the airlines, availed the service of the said flight.

“The management has decided to operate one flight on Tuesday as well. We are informing passengers booked on AI flights for Tuesday about this arrangement so that those willing to avail of this service could do so,” said an AI official and added that the flight would arrive at Patna at 1.25pm and would leave for Delhi at 2.05pm.

Thanks to the lean flow of passengers, the private operators —Jet, IndiGo, Kingfisher and GoAir — have not effected much hike in the ticket prices.

The proprietor of a well-known travel agency said a Patna-Delhi ticket for the day was priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 13,000 on Monday.