Flights canceled due to ill cabin crew at the last minute: Air India Express

Delays and cancellations of Air India Express flights occurred due to some of the cabin crew calling in sick at the last minute, an Air India Express spokesperson told media on Wednesday . Air India Express is engaging with cabin crew to understand the reasons behind illness reporting, the spokesperson said. According to sources, many employees are calling in sick to protest against alleged mismanagement at the Tata group-owned airline. Due to lack of sufficient cabin crew, many flights were canceled at various airports, including Kochi, Calicut and Bangalore.

“We sincerely apologize to our customers for this unexpected disruption and emphasize that this situation does not reflect the quality of service we strive to provide. Customers affected by cancellations will be offered a full refund or free rescheduling to a later date. “Customers traveling with us today are asked to check whether their flight is affected before traveling to the airport,” the airline said in a message on X.

Discontent has been brewing for some time among some of the low-cost airline’s cabin crew, particularly after the start of the merger process of AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India, with itself.

Late last month, a union representing some of Air India Express’ cabin crew claimed the airline was poorly managed and there was a lack of equality in the treatment of staff. The Air India Express Employees’ Union (AIXEU), a registered union that claims to represent around 300 cabin crew members, mostly senior citizens, also claimed that poor business management had affected employee morale.

Many passengers complained on social media on Wednesday about the sudden cancellation of flights. In response to a passenger’s post on X regarding flight cancellation, Air India Express apologized and said the flight was canceled “due to operational reasons”.

“As part of our service recovery process, you can either choose to reschedule the flight within the next 7 days or request a full refund via our Tia chatbot…” the airline said in a post on .

The Air India Express development comes a month after Tata Group’s full-service airline Vistara witnessed pilot issues, forcing it to temporarily reduce capacity by 10 per cent, or 25-30 flights daily. As part of the consolidation of its airline operations, the Tata group is merging Air India Express and AIX Connect, as well as Vistara with Air India.
(With PTI entries.)