Bangalore, March 12 (IANS) All operations at the Bangalore airport were normal Wednesday morning and flights took off and landed on schedule, an airport spokesperson said. Bangalore is one of the two focal points of the dispute over which members of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) Employees’ Union have gone on a de facto countrywide strike from midnight.

“There is no effect (of the strike) at all. All operations are normal and no flight take off and landing has been affected,” the spokesperson told IANS.

The strike would not affect flights here as the “air traffic control (ATC) operations are manned by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) staff and the ground support services are handled by various airlines,” AAI general manager B.R. Sena said.

“When our employees go on strike, officers will step in and look after the administrative matters at the airport, including coordination with security, customs and immigration wings,” he said.

Of the 180 AAI employees at the city airport, 120 are staff and 60 are officers.

The country’s third busiest airport after Mumbai and Delhi, the HAL airport handles about 300 flight movements a day, with 20-25 flights in 60 minutes during peak hours.