 "'Cabin crew issues are now well resolved', says Air India Express CCO")
A “very small” section of the cabin crew based out of two locations was behind the Air India Express flight cancellations last month and the issue is “now well resolved”, chief commercial officer Ankur Garg said on Wednesday.
Moreover, he said Air India Express may add 24 aircraft in six months, taking its total fleet to around 100 planes by 2024-end.
The airline faced two major challenges in stabilising its operations last month.
It initially had to cancel 164 flights between May 8 and May 12 when over 100 cabin crew members went on sick leave at the last minute. It was to protest against reduced salaries and other issues.
A few days later, flight cancellations resumed due to disruptions caused by a messy transition to a new flight crew rostering software.
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“When we try to grow too fast, it puts some pressure on human resources. However, this particular case pertained to a very small section of the crew based out of particular locations.
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Of the 45 stations that we operate from, this issue was at two stations. And, this issue is now well resolved. It was handled that week itself,” he said at the Aviation India 2024 event here.
“What happened during that month is that the timing of some of our system changes coincided with that. It just made the matter a lot more complicated. Now, we have passed that, and are back to normal operations. We are hoping that it will be stable from here onwards,” he added.
The Tata Group took control of Air India in January 2022. Air India Express, a low-cost airline, is a subsidiary of Air India. Currently, AIX Connect is in the process of being merged into Air India Express.
On April 26, Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU), the union representing around 300 senior cabin crew members of Air India Express, wrote a letter to Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran.
The letter highlighted concerns regarding removal of allowances, resulting in effectively reduced salaries. It also brought to the fore the perceived disparity in treatment between Air India Express employees and those of AIX Connect.
Garg said that integrating personnel of the two airlines is not inherently difficult. However, it becomes challenging when the airline is simultaneously changing its systems, expanding aircraft operations, and integrating human resources.
“The two carriers — Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India) — had a combined fleet of 54 aircraft at the time of Air India's privatisation. We have added 22 more planes, bringing our current fleet to 76 aircraft. We expect to have a fleet of 100 planes by the end of this year,” Garg said.
He said Air India Express is channelling a significant amount of traffic to its parent airline, Air India, particularly through major airports in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.
He said when Air India Express identifies substantial business or corporate traffic on a specific route, it coordinates the flight timings on that route with those of Air India.