The government today once again made it clear that striking Air India pilots have to return to work unconditionally. Talking to reporters, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said that Pilots never gave a notice for the strike and the High Court has already declared the strike as illegal.

The strike of Air India Pilots belonging to Indian Pilots Guild, IPG, has entered 49th day today. Eleven pilots sat on hunger strike on Sunday in New Delhi, demanding the reinstatement of their 101 sacked colleagues.

The Air India management had sacked 101 pilots belonging to the IPG. Around 440 pilots had struck work since the 8th of last month against the Management's move to train pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines in the merged entity on the soon-to-be-inducted Boeing-787 Dreamliner.