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.
In a message to the airline’s staff, Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh on Wednesday said since last evening, more than 100 cabin crew members have reported sick prior to their rostered flight duty, “at the last minute, severely disrupting our operations”.
More than 90 flights have been disrupted due to the situation, he added.
“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,” Singh said.
For now, the curtailment of flights will be till May 13, one of the sources said.
Singh also said the company leadership is available for any discussions if there are concerns that need to be addressed.
“All comms channels remain open — departmental townhalls (one pre-scheduled for tomorrow), monthly all-hands townhall besides formal and informal reach out to leaders,” he said.
According to him, senior cabin crew colleagues who have seen the airline evolve from a small, niche operator to what we are today — “a rapidly growing 350+ flights-a-day carrier, with a strong network footprint across India, Gulf and SE Asia — have a deeper stake in helping build and achieve the vision we have set for ourselves”.