Over 70 flights were cancelled on Thursday following the mass sick leave taken by the cabin crew of Air India Express, sources said. "A total of 292 AIX flights will operate today, 74 stand cancelled," sources told IANS.
The airline's cabin crew went on mass sick leave claiming that despite promises of job security, salary preservation, and recognition of seniority and expertise, there has been a noticeable deviation from these assurances.
The Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU), representing a segment of cabin crew members, had also earlier written to Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran, addressing employee grievances and expressing concerns about the ongoing situation within Air India Express Limited, especially after its acquisition by Tata.
The union has accused the airline of mismanagement and unequal treatment of staff, claiming that these issues have adversely impacted employee morale.
Meanwhile, Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh in a letter to his colleagues said that act is certainly not representative of the 2,000-odd cabin crew colleagues in the company who continue to respond to the call of duty and serve our guests with dedication and pride.
"Since last evening, over 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," read the letter sent on Wednesday.
The 'mass sick' leave taken by the Air India Express cabin crew continued to disrupt the operations of the low-cost carrier at the four airports in Kerala for the second day in succession. None of the Express flights have taken off from the airports in Kerala.
Irate passengers booked to travel to various Middle Eastern destinations expressed their ire against the airline as they have tickets booked in advance, but are now unable to travel. Those whose visas are expiring are the worst affected.
There were unconfirmed reports that around 30 of the striking cabin crew were served dismissal notices for failing to turn up for duty. On Thursday, around 74 scheduled flights, domestic and international, were cancelled.
(With inputs from IANS)
