Mumbai: Air India Express faces continued disruptions despite resolution attempts

The Air India Express Union wrote a second letter to the central labour commissioner requesting his intervention in its ongoing operational crisisThe ongoing development comes nearly two weeks after the airline witnessed disruptions due to a section of cabin crew reporting sick amid a protest against alleged mismanagement by the carrier The strike was called off on May 9 after the meeting with Delhis labour commissioner and the crew members who were on strike joined back duty on May 10A letter written by K K Vijayakumar who is the AIX employees union president addressed to the central labour commissioner Onkar Sharma reads ldquoAs per the conclusion of the conciliation all cabin crew reported back for flying duties by May 10 2024 However it is shocking and surprising to note that many flights are still being cancelled over delays citing crew constraintsrdquoldquoUpon inquiry it has come to our notice that the operations department lost cabin crew data due to the transition from old software ARMS to the new CAE app managed by the scheduling department The concerned department has asked the crew to submit their details for updating the data in the new system ie CAErdquo the letter readIt further read that additionally more than 100 cabin crew members have been sitting idle without flying duties for the last two months due to the nonavailability of airport entry passes ldquoAnd to cover up daily flight cancellations and delays cabin crew are manually assisting the scheduling department basewise The cabin crew are doing their utmost to restore and operate flights on time for public convenience Furthermore the reduced number of departures is adversely affecting the cabin crews salariesrdquoAirline staffers aware of the matter told midday ldquoAfter the Delhi labour commissioner intervened followed by a meeting between him management and the protesting staffers the protest was called off as we were given assurances including the withdrawal of 25 crew members who were earlier suspended Even now we are witnessing several issues related to the rostering systemrdquoAnother AIX staffer on condition of anonymity said ldquoWe called off our protest on May 9 and everyone joined the very next day But soon after we joined the airline came up with a new application for the rostering system Now we are using this new app called CEA app but the problem is that the airline has lost all the previous data which was there in the previous apprdquoThe staffer further added ldquoNow the crew members themselves from the respective bases are helping each other by letting the people know who all are available The management hasnt been able to solve this issue yet They are even calling crew members who are not even at the bases Similarly people who have just done a flight theyre rostering another flight for them asthe management itself is unaware regarding who all are availablerdquoAnother staffer said ldquoOften crew members dont even have the airport entry pass which has to be arranged by the airline Such incidents are leading to cancellations and delays and as far as I know more than 350 flights have been cancelled between May 1020 because of thisrdquoAn AIX official on condition of anonymity said that the cancellations going on are a ripple effect of cancellations last month ldquoNo inconvenience to passengers because they are being informed in advance and this is happening mostly on domestic routesrdquo A request by this reporter was sent to AIX which was acknowledged by the spokesperson of the airline but the airline did not comment on the matter till the time of going to pressMay 9The day the strike was called off