Late last month, the airline's union complained to the labour department criticising the airline's management, complaining about salary cuts and lack of equality in treatment of employees | Representative photo: Wikimedia Commons
Air India Express cancels 80 flights after cabin crew call in sick amid brewing discontent
Cabin crew members started reporting sick from May 6 onwards and ”scores of flights” were cancelled at various airports, including Kochi, Calicut and Benguluru
The Tata Group-owned Air India Express has cancelled over 80 flights after nearly 200 senior cabin crew members, allegedly unhappy over 'mismanagement' of the airline, suddenly reported sick.
The airline said on Wednesday (May 8) that it had cancelled some flights due to a shortage of cabin crew members as a section of them reported sick.
Refunds available
"Guests flying with us today are requested to check if their flight is affected, before heading to the airport," said Air India Express. Passengers affected by cancellations will be offered full refunds or rescheduling, said the airline in a statement.
Several cabin crew members started reporting sick since Monday evening and due to inadequate number of cabin crew members, ”scores of flights” were cancelled at various airports, including Kochi, Calicut and Bangalore.
Brewing discontent
According to media reports, discontent has been brewing among a section of the cabin crew at the low-cost carrier for some time now. This has been triggered especially after the process to merge AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India with Air India Express began.
Late last month, the airline's union that claims to represent around 300 cabin crew personnel, most of whom are seniors, criticised the airline's management, complaining about salary cuts and lack of equality in treatment of employees.
The union also complained to the labour department saying that the airline is allegedly mismanaged and that employees are not treated equally. The cabin crew members had raised concerns including issues over room sharing during layovers.
Show cause notice
Following this complaint, the Union labour ministry reportedly issued a show cause notice to Air India Express for alleged violations of regulations related to disputes between the airline's management and cabin crew members.
The union also wrote to N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata group in April, pointing out that various allowances, including HRA, which were part of the compensation prior to the merger have been removed. This has resulted in significant salary cuts despite the airline consistently posting profits, it added.
The Air India Express management also had a town hall meeting with its cabin crew on May 2 to discuss the issues raised by the unions. However, a resolution has not been reached so far.
Airline issues statement
Meanwhile, the airline issued a statement saying that a section of our cabin crew 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 airline said in a statement on May 8.
Further the statement said that they sincerely apologise for this "unexpected disruption" and emphasise that this situation does not reflect the standard of service they strive to provide.
"Guests impacted by cancellations will be offered a full refund or complimentary rescheduling to another date," said the statement.
Predictably, many passengers took to social media on Wednesday to talk about the sudden cancellation of flights.
The development at Air India Express comes a month after Tata Group's Vistara faced issues with their pilots. They were forced to temporarily cut down capacity by 10 per cent or 25-30 flights daily.
As part of consolidating its airline business, the Tata Group is merging Air India Express and AIX Connect, as well as Vistara with Air India.
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