Air India Express struggles with roster software, over 50 flights affected

The Tata-owned airline has been compelled to manually assign duties and organise schedules for its staff, affecting around 50 out of the 300 daily flights operated by the airline

About two weeks after flight disruptions caused by a significant number of cabin crew calling in sick, Air India Express (AIX) continues to face challenges in restoring operations due to issues with newly implemented roster management software.

According to a report in the Economic Times, several pilots and cabin crews said that the Tata-owned airline had been compelled to manually assign duties and organise schedules for its staff, affecting around 50 out of the 300 daily flights operated by the airline.

Tata Group starts 20 additional flights

The report further said that Tata Group carriers Air India and Vistara are assisting by operating around 20 additional daily flights.

 

A crew member said that they have been asked to manually fill their locations in Google Sheets which would then be fed into the new software to build the June roster. “Many of us are putting in extra hours calling up our colleagues and locating them so that they can be assigned flights,” the report quoted the crew member as saying.

Over 100 flights cancelled due to mass leave

On May 5, Air India Express transitioned to new scheduling software provided by Canada-based CAE Group. Subsequently, around 100 flights were cancelled on May 8 and May 9 due to mass application of sick leave among the cabin crew. Following the disruption on May 8 and 9, Air India Express encountered difficulties in accurately tracking the whereabouts of its crew members and pilots.

The report quoted an AIX spokesperson as saying, “The recent cancellations, which account for about 5-8 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.”

The airline has devised an ambitious expansion strategy to secure the second position in the domestic market, trailing only market leader IndiGo. Since September last year, it has included 20 Boeing 737 Max aircraft and plans to introduce an additional 30 by the end of this year.