Air India Express cancels flights after hundreds of crew call in sick

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Budget airline Air India has canceled dozens of flights after hundreds of cabin crew members called in sick, marking the latest staffing crisis to hit the national airline bought by conglomerate Tata Sounds in 2022.

The airline had to delay or cancel 87 flights Wednesday after about 300 of the carrier’s roughly 2,600 cabin crew members called in sick Tuesday evening, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“The airline did not have time to react,” the person said, adding that management was unable to contact the absent crews after they turned off their cell phones.

These massive sick leaves come as staff demand better working conditions at Air India. An Air India Express spokesperson said, “While we are in discussion with the crew to understand the reasons behind these occurrences, our teams are actively addressing this issue to minimize any inconvenience caused to our guests. »

The staff crisis is the latest blow to Tata’s attempts to consolidate its aviation business and turn around loss-making Air India after the conglomerate bought the debt-ridden national carrier from the government.

Since then, Tata has announced plans to merge Vistara, its premium carrier co-owned by Singapore Airlines, with Air India and to merge Air India Express with AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India. It is also buying new planes to renovate its old fleet.

Last month, Vistara pilots called in sick, complaining of fatigue and poor pay. That led the airline to cut flights and sparked calls for solidarity from Air India colleagues, who said Tata was underpaying and overworking its crew.

Tata’s moves to introduce merit-based performance contracts have made many employees “very unhappy”, said Neelam Mathews, an independent aviation analyst based in New Delhi.

“They know Air India has this strike mentality,” she said. “It’s in their DNA. . . their mindset is totally different, so I think to some extent Tata is at fault. They should have really thought about it.

Initially launched by Tata in 1932, Air India was nationalized more than 20 years later. It had a national monopoly for decades until India liberalized its economy in the early 1990s, ushering in fierce competition that reduced Air India’s market share.

Since returning to the Tata stable, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson has been leading restructuring efforts at a carrier that was bleeding $2.4 million a day. Wilson joined Air India after working for 26 years at Singapore Airlines.

Wilson told the Financial Times last year that he hoped to return the airline to the “upper echelons” of global aviation, tripling passenger numbers and challenging Gulf hubs.

In one of the world’s largest aviation purchases, Air India has placed an order for 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing in 2023, to be delivered over several years. The carrier continues to face passenger complaints about aging planes and poor service from staff.

The airline’s reputation was also tarnished in late 2022 after its slow handling of an in-flight incident in which a drunken passenger urinated on a 72-year-old woman in business class during a long-haul flight.

Mathews said Tata’s overhaul would likely take at least seven years as the company works to consolidate its carriers and resolve labor issues.

“The problems he inherited are too great,” she said. “Tata thought they would come in, sit down and take over as if they were running their car company. Aviation is not the automotive sector. . . it is complicated.