Following the delay and cancellation of more than 90 international and domestic flights due to cabin crew reporting sick, Air India Express’ chief executive officer (CEO), Aloke Singh, announced on Wednesday that the airline will reduce its flight operation in the coming days.
“Since last evening, over a 100 of our cabin crew colleagues have reported sick prior to their rostered flight duty, at the last minute, severely disrupting our operations. Because this action was mostly by colleagues assigned L1 role, the impact was disproportionate, disrupting 90+ flights even though other colleagues reported for duty,” the airline’s CEO said in a statement.
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Hundreds of passengers from the UAE were stranded following the cancellation or delay of the Air India Express flights. As news of the flight cancellations spread, ticket prices of other airlines shot up.
Entrepreneur Kishor Kumar was one of those impacted by the flight cancellation. “I was scheduled to fly from Kochi to Sharjah at 2.10am,” he said, speaking to Khaleej Times from India, adding it was soon after midnight that the passengers were informed that the flight had been cancelled.
Meanwhile, the airline’s CEO said, “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.”
He also emphasised that this behaviour does not represent the majority of the airline’s cabin crew, who remain dedicated to their service.
“This act is certainly not representative of the 2,000-odd cabin crew colleagues in the company who continue to respond to the call of duty and serve our guests with dedication and pride. I am thankful to all who are standing by the airline in this hour of crisis,” he said.
He also called the staff for discussions regarding any concerns that need to be addressed and saying that all communication channels are open.
These delays and cancellation of flights of Air India Express has raised concerns within the Ministry of Civil Aviation, prompting the ministry to call for a detailed report from the airline regarding the same.
The ministry has also urged the airline to promptly resolve the issues.
Additionally, Air India Express has been advised to ensure that facilities are provided to passengers as per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) norm.
According to sources within the ministry, the cancellations and delays began on Tuesday night and persisted into Wednesday morning, forcing the airline to curtail its scheduled operations.
The sudden shortage of crew members led to flights being grounded, affecting both domestic and international routes.
The sources said that some senior crew members switched off their mobile phones just before flight operations, citing health issues.