Close on the heels of the Lucknow ATCs delaying clearance for about three hours to a special aircraft carrying Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Wednesday, Defence Minister George Fernandes's flight from Mumbai was delayed for nearly two hours last evening.

Confirming the delay caused to the flight carrying the Defence Minister, sources in the ATC Guild at the Mumbai airport said that unless their demands were met unconditionally, they would be forced to disrupt more flights.

Today, the ATCs' work-to-rule agitation forced Gujarat Airways to altogether cancel its flight from Mumbai to Hubli in the afternoon, besides causing delays ranging from twenty to over a hundred minutes for arriving and departing flights.

``The Mumbai airport is the busiestairport in the country, and it will be really difficult to control the situation if the agitation continues for another two or three days,'' sources said. Though the agitation entered the fourth day today, its real impact would be felt in the next two to three days only, as the seemingly inconsequential delays of 30-40 minutes caused now, are bound escalate further.

Meanwhile, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has invited the leaders of the ATC guild for a meeting tomorrow, when AAI Chairman, D V Gupta, will return to New Delhi from Tirupati, where he was accompanying the Civil Aviation Minister, Ananth Kumar.

The ATCs are demanding rationalisation of pay scales, introduction of duty allowance and enhancement of rating allowance among other things. They are seeking implementation of the Jhulka committee recommendations on these and other issues.

The ATCs have threatened to continue the work-to-rule agitation till such time that the management disburses the duty allowance, as recommended by thecommittee with a retrospective effect since November 1997. They have also made it clear that they will not participate in negotiations or discussions with the management, until the duty allowance is disbursed.