Accusing the Air-India pilots of 'destroying the image' of the national carrier worldwide, Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain said on Friday that action taken against the agitating pilots would not be revoked and derecognition of the Indian Pilots' Guild would continue.

The pilots, who had gone on strike under the banner of IPG, had unconditionally withdrawn their agitation last night and the government had not agreed to any of their demands, he said.

"We have taken a tough stand on the support of both the prime minister and the Opposition," Hussain said in a programme anchored by Karan Thapar for DD Metro.

He said there were "no talks" between the Labour Minister Shahib Singh Verma and the IPG, adding, some people saw that A-I was making profit after being in the red for six years and decided to put new demands.

"The main thing was CAT-3 Instrument Landing System. We told them (IPG) to take training so that flights could land in fog during winter. They asked for Rs 75,000 per pilot, which would cost A-I Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million)," the minister said.

Hussain said flights to destinations in the US, UK and Europe were not cancelled despite the strike as the flagship carrier had taken alternative steps to operate scheduled flights.

Asserting that the A-I strike was not the fault of the airline management, Hussain said, "The pilots had informed at the last moment that they do not want to fly. The image of A-I was destroyed in the whole world as flights were stranded. So, we took a tough stand."

He said 30 A-I pilots had reported for duty last night and 50 more wanted to join following which the strike was withdrawn.

Hussain said A-I pilots had on April 8, 2003, declined to fly to Kuwait due to the Iraq war saying there was danger.

"Then, they said no to Hong Kong and Singapore. We said WHO (World Health Organisation) and IATA (International Air Transport Association) had not said that nobody should fly to these countries.

"We said instead of IPG we will use other pilots. Then, they laid a condition that they will not fly with anybody who has travelled to a SARS-affected region in the last 10 days."

Hussain said Air-India has made a profit of about Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) last year despite the Iraq war and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which hit passenger traffic.

"Our profit would have been Rs 246 crore (Rs 2.46 billion), if the Iraq war had not happened and if we had not paid extra for fuel costs. Now, there is SARS otherwise we would have made a profit of Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion)," the minister said.