Software woes hit Air India Express as flight cancellations resume

Air India Express has been facing challenges in stabilising its operations this month. The airline 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 to protest reduced salaries and other issues.

Now, the airline has again been hit by flight cancellations since Sunday allegedly due to disruptions caused by a chaotic transition to a new flight crew rostering software.

Following the cabin crew protest, the airline had already reduced its scheduled flights, but this measure alone hasn’t proven effective.

Though there was a brief lull in cancellations between May 13 and May 18, the situation worsened from Sunday (May 19) onwards.

According to FlightAware, the airline cancelled a total of 69 flights between Sunday and Wednesday. Additionally, sources reported that approximately 12 flights were cancelled on Thursday.

When asked about this, Air India Express spokesperson responded, “The recent cancellations, which account for about 5 per cent of our daily flights, were primarily due to the cascading impact of an unauthorised mass sick reporting by a section of our crew members. This unfortunate and unexpected event coincided with our transition to a more sophisticated crew scheduling software. This resulted in a longer-than-expected stabilisation period, which has largely been mitigated, and we anticipate a complete recovery as the week progresses.”