The government has initiated a process in consultation with labour ministry to declare the 'undeclared' strike by Indian Pilots Guild as 'illegal' and take necessary action against its members, Civil Aviation Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Responding to queries raised by some members during 'zero hour' on the suspension of 27 pilots for their refusal to fly aircraft to SARS-hit Singapore and Hong Kong, Hussain said: "We have initiated a process in consultation with the labour ministry to declare their undeclared strike illegal and take necessary action against them."

"The members of the Indian Pilots Guild are not on strike, but they are refusing to fly aircraft. They want written undertakings that none of the crew members accompanying them had visited the SARS-hit countries during the past ten days," he said.

Despite these problems, Air-India is expected to make a profit of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) this year against Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million) last year, Hussain said, adding that the profit would have gone up to Rs 300 to Rs 400 crore (Rs 3-4 billion) this year but because of Iraq developments, the profit could go up to only Rs 100 crore.

So far not a single flight to the United States and Europe had been cancelled due to the pilots' stir and executive pilots were operating these flights, he said, adding that in the past one week altogether 37 flights bound for South-East Asian countries had been cancelled.