Air India operations have been severely affected due to ongoing strike which has entered third day today. Over 300 executive pilots also joined the strike today. The national carrier has drastically reduced its operation to 50 flights across its network against the regular 320.The Delhi High Court castigated striking Air India pilots for defying its order to immediately call-off the agitation and issued notices to their union's office bearers seeking replies as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them. The government and Air India Management have refused to give in to the demands of the striking pilots. AIR correspondent reports that passengers continued to bear the brunt of the agitation. Most of the flyers have cancelled their tickets on Air India while some others were being accommodated in other airlines. The national carrier will not make any fresh bookings till 3rd May to avoid further inconvenience to the passengers.Meanwhile, the Railway Ministry will run special trains on important sectors to clear extra rush of passengers. All zonal railways have also been directed to take necessary steps to clear extra rush in view of the ongoing pilots' strike. Two special trains from Delhi to Kolkata and Mumbai were run on Thursday. They will also have a return trip to the capital. A Railway Ministry official said that these are Rajdhani-type fully air-conditioned trains and will have 1st AC, 2nd AC and 3rd AC coaches. He added that ticket counters have been set up at the domestic airport in Delhi. The tickets can also be purchased from Passenger Reservation System, PRS, counters across the country. In Mumbai, Air India operations were severely affected today due to ongoing pilots strike. The only ones facing the brunt of the chaos are the passengers. AIR correspondent reports that in Mumbai, the airline has decided to use three wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft on the Mumbai-Delhi-Ahmedabad-Mumbai and Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Mumbai sector to accommodate more passengers. AI has also decided to operate four special services using Air India Express from Mumbai flying Boeing 737 on Mumbai – Abu Dhabi – Mumbai, Chennai-Singapore-Chennai, Kochi-Kozhikode-Sharjah-Kochi and Kozhikode-Dubai-Kozhikode routes. Additionally, a jumbo service will operate between Bombay-Dubai-Delhi-Bombay.Meanwhile, the Central and Western railways have decided to run additional services to help those air passengers affected by the crippling Air India pilots’ strike. The Central Railway will run two special trains between Mumbai and Hyderabad. The first train will leave the city at 8.10pm today and reach Hyderabad the next day at 9am. The second train will leave Hyderabad at 1pm on Saturday and reach Mumbai at 4.10am on May 1. The Western Railway, meanwhile, will run a Rajdhani-type special train between Mumbai and New Delhi. Train number 04091 will leave Mumbai Central at 7.45pm on Saturday and reach New Delhi at 5.10pm the next day. The train will stop at Mathura, Kota, Ratlam, Vadodara, Surat and Borivali stations en route. Air India has given a deadline of five o' clock this evening to the striking pilots to resume their duties. An official spokesman of the airlines confirmed the report. The deadline was given after Delhi High Court castigated striking pilots for defying its orders to immediately call off their agitation. The Court which issued notices to the agitating pilots on Thursrday seeking replies as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them. The Court today refused to stay Air India management order derecognising Indian Commercial Pilots Association. The offices of the association have also been sealed and six office bearers of the pilot's association have been sacked already.