While nearly all domestic flights of Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, Sahara and Gujarat Air were delayed for periods ranging between 25 minutes and two hours, international flight schedules also remained upset. The continuing low visibility conditions due to heavy fog at the Delhi airport only added to the problems.

Meanwhile, a wave of discontent seems to building up against the ATCs. Airline operators and passengers Express Newsline spoke to today criticised ATCs for holding a country to ransom. ``Airline officialsare helpless... flights are being denied clearance just before departure time, after the passengers have boarded it. Once inside the plane, the crew and passengers are at the ATCs' mercy,'' an airline official explained.

An irate Jet Airways passenger added: ``The situation is really getting out of control, especially as the government and the AAI seem completely indifferent to the plight of thousands of passengers.''

Referring to the demand of the ATCs for an hourly duty allowance to a maximum of Rs 1.80 lakh per month, which would ensure a near parity in their pay scales with pilots, another official said: ``These chaps sit in control towers, but must come down to earth. By merely directing a pilot when to land and take off doesn't mean that they should equate themselves with their status. It's like anaesthetics demanding parity with surgeons,'' he explained.

``It's difficult to understand on what grounds the ATCs are equating themselves with pilots, when in case of the latter, they have to spendseveral lakhs of rupees just to get licences to fly planes. Though the salaries and other perks and allowances drawn by commercial pilots in India are unreasonably high, they are at least justified in view of the amount spent by them. Whereas in the case of ATCs, all they have to spend is on getting a university degree,'' another officer said. The educational criteria for selection to a one-year training programme run by Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for ATCs is a first-class degree in electrical engineering, electronic telecommunications or a first class master's degree in radio, electronics or computer physics.