Air India has cancelled 76 domestic and international flights scheduled for today on its network in the wake of strike by 20,000 employees of the national carrier who are protesting against airline management's gag order.

"We have cancelled a total of 76 flights scheduled to be operated on domestic as well as international sectors from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore on May 26," an airline official said.

The airline has decided to cancel these flights after reviewing the situation of the availability of the executive engineers, who are not part of the employees' unions.

No flight could be operated until it is certified by an aircraft engineer. Since the number of executive engineers are less so Air India decided to cancel these 76 flights, said the official.

Yesterday, over 20,000 employees went on a flash strike to protest Air India's gag order that hit flight operations.

Management has threatened stern action including termination of service if the agitation continued.