Mumbai: Air India has temporarily suspended its flights from Delhi and Hyderabad to Singapore with effect from April 21 due to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and the Indian Pilots Guild's decision not to operate flights to Singapore.

Flights to Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, to which some of the Singapore flights are extended in the normal schedule, will also be temporarily discontinued, an Air India release said on April 19.

The airline will now operate 10 instead of 14 flights a week out of Mumbai and Chennai.

AI has been compelled to effect these changes in the schedule keeping in view the unavailability of executive pilots to operate services to Singapore, an A-I spokesman said.

The IP Guild had earlier this month directed its members not to operate flights to Hong Kong, due to SARS, and to Kuwait due to the war in Iraq.

Considering that no international airline has suspended flights to Hong Kong and Singapore due to fears of SARS though services have been curtailed in view of falling passenger demand, there was no rationale behind the various directives issued by IPG, the spokesman said.

The management has taken all effective measures possible to ensure that the crew operating flights were not exposed to SARS by eliminating the need for an overnight halt. Flights to Kuwait have been operated safely throughout the period of the Iraq war by AI and many other airlines, as the airspace had been regarded safe for civil aviation.

PTI