Mumbai: Air India (AI) on April 26 morning operated four of its scheduled international flights from Mumbai, even as the management has sent letters to the managing committee members of the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) asking them to withdraw all their directives about operations to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) affected regions.

An AI spokesman said apart from its international flights to Delhi-Dubai, Calicut-Dubai, London-New York and Paris-New Jersey, the airline operated services to Cochin, Bangalore and Ahmedabad to bring in connecting passengers for its international flights.

A special flight was operated to Delhi to take passengers who arrived from New York, as well as to bring in those from the capital to connect them to a special flight to London, which is to be operated later in the day.

According to AI sources, letters were sent on April 25 night to IPG committee members demanding them to withdraw the directives, including the one on certification that other crew members have not been on any flights to SARS-affected regions in the past 10 days.

The IPG leaders, including president captain Kenneth Khan, arrived in Mumbai late on April 25 night as passengers on board various flights.

The secretary, civil aviation K Roy Paul, who is also the chairman, is arriving in Mumbai around 11.00 am (IST) and is scheduled to meet the departmental heads before beginning talks with the IPG.

PTI