'Will curtail flights over the next few days': Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh amid ongoing crew crisis

Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh on May 8 said that the airline will cut down flights over the next few days as a significant number of cabin crew reported sick just before their scheduled duties.

Since Tuesday night, 300 senior cabin crew members of Air India Express reported sick at the last minute and switched off their cellphones, leading to over 90 flights being cancelled and many passengers being left stranded. 

Singh said the disruption has affected operations across the network. In a statement, he further said that this behaviour is not reflective of the majority of the airline’s cabin crew, who continue to serve with dedication.

“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,” Singh said in the statement.

Singh added that if there are concerns that need to be addressed, the company leadership is available for any discussions.

"Let's work together to embrace this transformation and change, and support a competency-based, customer-centric organisation that the market demands. We owe it to our guests, trade partners, and to the rest of our 6,500+ colleagues. Hope to see things get resolved soon," he said.

Earlier today, the airline apologised for the convenience after over 90 of its flights, most of them international, were either cancelled or delayed due to senior crew members calling in sick.

Data provided by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, sttaed that Air India Express has 778 domestic departures while 412 are international per week. Flights from Kochi, Kannur, Bengaluru are primarily impacted due to the missing crew. The airline operates 87 unique city pairs on the international side, 37 of those or 42% are monopoly routes.

In March, the airline carried an average of 10,900 domestic passengers per day and 14741 international passengers per day. While all flights are not cancelled, a substantial number will be impacted due to this menace.

Earlier in the day, NDTV reported that the Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU)wrote to Air India's chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran expressing concerns over escalating discontent among employees. 
The two-page letter, addressed to the chairman of Air India Limited under Tata Sons ownership (of which Air India Express is a subsidiary), reportedly talked about a surge in dissatisfaction among staff subsequent to the airline's acquisition by a private entity.

There is a "stark departure from commitments on job security, salary and maintenance, and respect for seniority and maintenance", AIXEU said in its letter, referring to the firing of "several employees with impeccable records" that it said was "contrary to assurances" made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that there will be “no termination for two years post acquisition” of the formerly government-run Air India.