Air India Express is learnt to have cancelled several flights owing to a shortage of cabin crew members as a section of them have reportedly called in sick en-masse to protest against alleged mismanagement at the Tata Group-owned airline.
Over 80 international and domestic flights were canceled and many were delayed after about 300 senior cabin crew members reported sick at the last minute and switched off their mobile phones, reports said.
Sources cited in a news agency PTI report said discontent has been brewing among a section of the cabin crew of the low-cost carrier Air India Express for some time now, especially after the start of the process of merger of AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India, with itself.
The above-mentioned sources on Wednesday said several cabin crew members started reporting sick since Monday evening and as there are not enough cabin crew members, "scores of flights" have been cancelled at various airports, including Kochi, Calicut and Bangalore.
'Mismanagement' Allegation
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, the news agency PTI report mentioned.
Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU), 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.
Several passengers took to social media on Wednesday complaining about the sudden cancellation of flights.
The airline is to operate 360 daily flights during the summer schedule that started in the last week of March.
In response to one such passenger's post on X about flight cancellation, Air India Express apologised and said the flight was cancelled "due to operational reasons".
"As part of our service recovery process, you can either opt to reschedule the flight within the next 7 days or request a full refund through our chat bot Tia...," the airline said in a post on X.
Vistara Protest
In April, a similar situation was seen by Visatara airlines when its pilots reported sick in protest against new contracts as part of the merger of the carrier with Air India which concerns that fixed pay component is getting reduced and there is more flying-linked incentive in the salary structure.
Vistara is a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines.
The new contracts were to bring parity between pilots of Vistara and Air India have been introduced as part of the ongoing merger process.
The pilot protest forced Vistara 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.
