Air India Express to curtail flights amid staff crunch, says CEO

New Delhi: Air India Express will curtail its flight schedule amid the ongoing uncertainty over staff availability after the airline was forced to cancel over 90 flights on Wednesday after staffers reported sick and failed to turn up for their duty, CEO Aloke Singh said in an internal communication to staffers.

Over 10o Air India Express crew reported sick on Wednesday “at the last minute, severely disrupting our operations”, , said Singh. He added that the Wednesday occurrence did not represent the stance of over 2,000 Air India Express cabin crew.

“We had to do this to cope with the non-availability of crew and to recover schedules,” he added. The Tata Group-owned airline operated nearly 360 flights per day during the summer schedule which started in March 2024.

Air India Express flight cancellations

Air India Express cancelled over 90 flights on Wednesday citing en masse sick leaves opted by nearly 100 cabin crew. The move was reportedly a protest move by cabin crew who were unhappy about not being treated at par with their colleagues in other airlines operated by the Tata Group.

The Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU) stated that mediation discussions between the union and the airline were not fruitful. Their demands were not heard by the Central Labour Commissioner either, the union said.

AIXEU flagged issues related to:

• Job security
• Salary
• Flattened staff structure
• Management suppressing individual voices
• Discouraging whistleblowers
• Disre ard for SOPs leading to burnout

Labour commissioner said about airline-union deadlock

The regional labour commissioner, who was overseeing conciliation discussions between the AIXEU and Air India Express, flagged the violation of labour laws in an email to Air India CEO N Chandrasekaran, NDTV reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The RLC Ashok Perumalla also reportedly flagged the company HR for allegedly misleading the conciliation commissioner. The company management did not send a “responsible decision maker” to the conciliation proceedings, he added. While calling for the company to take corrective measures, Perumulla suggested that the comoany should set up a high-level committee to look into employee grievances.

Air India Express reportedly does not recognise AIXEU, NDTV reported. However, the airline is making attempts to reach out to the protesting crew members to break the logjam.