The management of Air India has announced a new much reduced schedule for the month of June due to continued uncertainties over the striking pilots as the strike entered its 17th day.

The new interim schedule, which will be in affect from June 2-30, was announced by the state-run airline on Wednesday. Under the new schedule, the airline has cut seven international flights daily and it will operate only 38 services instead of a normal 45 services daily.

The airline will continue to fly to destinations in the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Singapore, Thailand and SAARC countries normally but destinations like Hong Kong, Osaka, Seoul and Toronto have been dropped from the interim schedule for the month of June.

Meanwhile, the management has filed a contempt petition against the striking pilots in the Delhi High Court. The move comes after the court had upheld the decision of a single bench describing the strike as illegal. The government repeated its stance that the strike is illegal and blamed the pilots for not coming to the negotiation table.

Air India had announced its decision to sack a group of 10 pilots after they went on an agitation against the airline. The airline management also announced that it is derecognizing their union and had to seal its offices in Delhi and Mumbai. Among the ten pilots who have been sacked by the airline, some are office bearers of the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), which is heading the protest against the management. More than 300 of its pilots are no reporting for work since more than two weeks.