Passengers at the Air India counter at Patna airport. Telegraph picture

Patna, May 8: The pilots have called off their agitation and returned to the cockpits but Air India’s flights to and from Patna failed to make smooth take off and landing today.

Even two days after the strike of its pilots came to an end, Air India (AI) services have not returned to normal.

The airline operates three flights on the Delhi-Patna-Delhi route regularly. But today, when there was no strike, the government carrier operated just two flights.

One of these was the regular afternoon flight (IC 407/408) on the Delhi-Patna-Delhi route, whereas the other was the Delhi-Varanasi flight (IC 405/406), which had been extended to Patna during the strike period.

A total of 112 passengers from Patna availed of the services of these two flights.

AI sources said things were likely to limp back to normal by Tuesday.

“We inquired about the restoration of regular flights from the Delhi office and were asked to wait for two more days,” an AI official posted in Patna told The Telegraph.

The information provided by him appears to be correct, as those engaged in the travel business said the airlines’ website was accepting booking for only the morning flight (IC 409/410) for Monday, whereas the booking for the afternoon and evening flight on Delhi-Patna-Delhi route was still frozen.

A source in the AI said the afternoon flight, too, was likely to operate on Monday but a final call on this front would be taken late this evening.

“All the three flights are likely to become operational by Tuesday,” added the source.

As far as the extension of services of the Delhi-Varanasi flight is concerned, it would not operate to Patna from Monday.

A source in the AI said after the 10-day strike of pilots, the airlines management had also started thinking in terms of introducing a new schedule for its flights, as well as cutting short the operation of flights on those routes which were not very profitable.

One of the likely changes to be introduced on Delhi-Patna-Delhi routes would be withdrawal of one of the three flights and replacing it with one that would operate on the Delhi-Patna-Calcutta-Patna-Delhi route.

“The plan to introduce this flight is under the consideration of the AI management for quite some time. The loss incurred during the strike period is likely to expedite the process,” said the source.

He, however, added that it was just a possibility and things might continue to function according to the old pattern in days to come.

According to estimates, AI incurred losses to the tune of Rs 150 crore during the pilots’ strike, which started on April 27 and continued till May 6.

One of the major demands of the striking pilots, most of whom owe allegiance to the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association, was that of pay parity with pilots of other national carriers.