Cabin crew crisis: AI Express cancels over 90 flights

NEW DELHI: Air India Express will curtail flights for the next few days to cope with non-availability of crew members, its CEO Aloke Singh said on Wednesday as the airline has been forced to cancel more than 90 flights due to cabin crew members reporting sick.

In a message to the airline’s staff, Singh said since last evening, more than 100 cabin crew members have reported sick prior to their rostered flight duty, “at the last minute, severely disrupting our operations”.

More than 90 flights have been disrupted due to the situation, he added.

“The disruptions have cascaded across the network, forcing us to curtail the schedules over the next few days. We had to do this to cope with the non-availability of crew and to recover schedules,” Singh said.

Tata Group-owned Air India Express operates around 360 flights daily in the ongoing summer schedule that started in late March.

Scores of flights have also been delayed and the airline’s passengers, mostly scheduled to travel to the Gulf nations, protested at airports in Kerala against flight cancellations as many of them were informed only after the security checks.

The civil aviation ministry on Wednesday sought a report from Air India Express on the flight cancellations and also asked the airline to resolve the issues promptly. On Wednesday, sources said over 200 cabin crew are believed to have reported sick to protest against the alleged mismanagement at the airline.

Flight disruptions are happening at various airports, including Kochi, Calicut, Delhi and Bengaluru. Domestic as well as international services, including to various Gulf countries, have also been hit, they added.

An Air India Express spokesperson said the airline is engaging with the cabin crew members to understand the reasons for reporting sick and also apologised for the flight disruptions. Discontent has been brewing among a section of the cabin crew at the low-cost carrier for some time now, especially after the start of the process to merge AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India, with itself.

The latest development at Air India Express comes a month after Tata Group full-service carrier Vistara witnessed pilot woes, forcing it to temporarily cut down capacity by 10 per cent, or 25-30 flights daily. As part of consolidating its airline business, Tata Group is merging Air India Express and AIX Connect, as well as Vistara with Air India.

The sources also said there was chaos at some airports due to the sudden cancellation of flights, including to overseas destinations. The airline is to operate 360 daily flights during the summer schedule that started in the last week of March.

“A section of our cabin crew has reported sick at the last minute, starting last night, resulting in flight delays and cancellations. “While we are engaging with the crew to understand the reasons behind these occurrences, our teams are actively addressing this issue to minimise any inconvenience caused to our guests as a result,” the Air India Express spokesperson said in a statement.

Apologising to the customers for the “unexpected disruption”, the spokesperson said those impacted by the cancellations will be offered a full refund or complimentary rescheduling to another date. Late last month, a union representing a section of the Air India Express cabin crew alleged that the airline is being mismanaged and there is a lack of equality in the treatment of the staff.

Air India Express Employees Union, a registered union, which claims to represent around 300 cabin crew members, mostly seniors, had also alleged that mismanagement of the affairs has affected the morale of the employees.