AI Express operations improving; expects normalcy in 2 days, says official

The operations of Air India Express slowly started improving on Friday as more cabin crew members are joining back for duty, after significant flight disruptions caused by cabin crew strike that has been called off.

The strike by a section of the cabin crew since Tuesday night that resulted in the cancellation of more than 170 flights was called off on Thursday evening and the airline also withdrew termination letters issued to 25 striking cabin crew.

The Tata Group airline, which operates around 380 flights daily, has curtailed operations in the wake of the strike and the official on Friday said, normalcy is expected in the next two days.

Cabin crew who were on strike are joining back and the airline is extending support to them in getting the fitness certificate, which is required to resume duty, the official added.

The official also said that most international flights are in the evening time and the operations on that front are expected to be better from Friday onwards with the availability of more cabin crew.

On average, the airline operates 120 international flights and 260 domestic services daily while there are fewer flights on some days.

Faced with cabin crew shortage, Air India Express on Thursday cancelled 85 flights or around 23 per cent of its total daily capacity.

After the strike was called off on Thursday, the airline had said it will help to swiftly restore flight schedule and also apologised to passengers who were impacted by the flight disruptions.

Many cabin crew members had reported sick to protest against alleged mismanagement at the airline and lack of equality in treatment of staff.

Air India Express -- which is in the process of completing the merger of AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India, with itself -- has around 6,000 employees, including over 2,000 cabin crew.