- SUMMARY
- Again, Air India Express has been hit with flight cancellations.
- In April month, it migrated to a new crew rostering system.
- This system has generated some faults resulting in cancellation of dozen flights.
For the second time within a month, the Low-Cost Arm of TATA Group, Air India Express has been forced to cancel a bunch of flights. Previously, the reason for the turmoil was an unplanned strike by cabin crew members. But now, a crew rostering issue has plagued airline operations at various airports, especially Delhi Airport.
Air India Express Cancel Flights
On May 15, Air India Express faced a crackdown on its crew rostering system. The airline uses crew rostering software from CAE to manage the schedules of its pilots and cabin crew members. In April, the Chief Executive Officer of Air India, Campbell Wilson announced the implementation of the new rostering system designed by CAE.
Due to a breakdown in this system, Air India Express was forced to cancel around a dozen flights on Wednesday. Around 8 flights, including 4 departures and 4 arrivals were cancelled at Delhi IGI Airport itself.
This includes the following flights:
- IX769 from Delhi to Goa
- IX2784 from Delhi to Lucknow
- IX1799 from Delhi to Guwahati
- IX799 from Delhi to Goa
- IX775 from Guwahati to Delhi
- IX830 from Goa to Delhi
- IX1996 from Surat to Delhi
- IX1799 from Goa to Delhi
Other than Delhi, the airline witnessed cancellations at other airports as well. In the crew rostering system, there was some issue with the work shift system, which affected the schedules of cabin crew and pilots. In India, DGCA governs the FDTL timelines for flying crew members.
Recently, when the cabin crew strike ended, a glitch was developed in the airline’s system. It was representing on-duty cabin crew members as sick. Later, the employee union had to clarify the status of duty resumption.
Air India Express Cancellation Woes: Not Again
This flight cancellation from Air India Express comes just a day after the airline’s operations came back to normal. On May 8, around 300 cabin crew members of the airline went on an unplanned strike. They had some demands, which the airline management and Chairman of TATA Group had ignored when written in the past. In response to the strike, the airline suspended 25 cabin crew members.
Hence, they went on an unplanned strike. Later, after the intervention of the Labour Commissioner, the airline assured the re-induction of all the suspended cabin crew members. Furthermore, it assured to hear the concerns of the crew members.
The employee union took back the strike. The strike started on May 8 and as of May 11, all the members resumed duties. Even after resuming their duties, the rostering system was showing these crew members as sick. Hence, the union has to clarify that all crew members have joined their duties.
During these six days of strike, the airline was forced to cancel around 500 flights in total. Air India Express operates around 380 daily flights, out of which more than 230 are international. Keeping this ratio in mind, you can understand the number of passengers specifically international passengers affected by these cancellations.
There was a report in the media recently that a wife was not able to meet her husband in his final time when he died in ICU. All because her flight to Muscat was cancelled. There were hundreds of such passengers, who missed important stuff because of these cancellations.
Conclusion
As soon as the operations at Air India Express normalized, the airline was hit with another issue. This time, a fault in the crew rostering system has forced the airline to cancel a dozen flights, specifically from Delhi Airport. Here is hoping that the airline resolves this issue as soon as possible.
What do you think about Air India Express and its flight cancellations? Discuss in the comment section.
With Inputs From News 18
Featured Image Credits: Air India Express via Facebook
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