Air India: Air India Express is operated by the Tata Group. The company’s cabin crew have gone on strike to protest against mismanagement. In this case, Air India’s flight service is affected as many flights have been canceled due to shortage of cabin crew.
After the process of merging AIX Connect Airlines (formerly AirAsia India) as a low-cost carrier began, there had been discontent among cabin crew staff for some time. In this situation, it is reported that many cabin crew members have been sick since Monday evening and “several flights” have been canceled at various airports including Kochi, Calicut and Bengaluru due to lack of sufficient cabin crew members.
Late last month, a union representing some Air India Express cabin crew accused the airline of mismanagement and inequitable treatment of employees.
The Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU), a registered trade union that claims to represent around 300 cabin crew staff, mostly seniors, has alleged that mismanagement has affected staff morale.
Passengers have alleged that Air India flight services have been canceled without prior notice. As a result, Bengaluru-Delhi, Kozhikode-Dubai Kuwait-Doha flights and Air India flights operated from Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kannur have been cancelled.
Air India canceled its flights from Kannur due to strike by employees. Accordingly, three flights from Kannur were canceled and four services from Kochi airport were suspended.
According to media reports, around 70 flights were canceled from several airports across India, including Thiruvananthapuram.
Although Air India Express said the flights were canceled due to operational issues, reports suggested that the strike by its employees led to the cancellation.
Air India Express’ flights have been canceled a month after Tata Group’s full-service carrier Vistara saw a setback. Vistara recently announced that it would be forced to temporarily cut 10 percent or 25-30 daily flights. Notably, as part of consolidation of its airline business, the Tata Group merged Air India Express and AIX Connect and Vistara with Air India.
