Page 6 - Air India Express

'Cabin crew issues are now well resolved', says Air India Express CCO

Airline to add 24 planes in the next 6 months, he added

Air India utilising group airlines' engineering skills for maintenance work

Tata Group-owned Air India is utilising the engineering skills available with group airlines to carry out more maintenance work of the aircraft under its own quality control amid multiple instances of its legacy planes facing operational issues, according to a senior company official. The official also said the airline is keen to lease aircraft but the market is very tight, especially for wide-body planes. After the takeover by the Tata Group in 2022, loss-making Air India has been making efforts for improvement and has embarked on a five-year transformation plan. To address the engineering issues more effectively, the official told PTI that Air India is bringing the work of line maintenance component in-house as well as using the licensing and skills of the group airlines to do some things in certain types of aircraft. Such an approach will help Air India in doing more "maintenance work under our own quality control", the official said on condition of anonymity. Air India is sett

Air India Express taps on growth, group synergies: MD Aloke Singh

As it looks to tap the growth opportunities and group synergies, Air India Express Managing Director Aloke Singh on Wednesday said the airline will focus on the cost side and transformation plans in 2024-25. Air India Express is in the process of merging AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India. "In 2024-25, a lot of synergies will be unlocked... there will be a laser focus on the cost side," Singh said. The two airlines are part of the Tata Group, which is also in the process of merging Vistara with Air India. There will be cross feeds between Air India long haul flights and domestic short haul flights, he said and added that there is substantial growth coming in. With the network and the new fleet coming in, there will be a significant upside on the revenue and cost side, Singh said. Speaking at the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2024 in the national capital, Singh also said that for the next five years, he does not see any issue of bilateral flying rights impacting its growth.

Air India in 'good position', to retrofit over 100 planes: CEO Wilson

Air India will be retrofitting more than 100 planes, including 40 wide body planes, and has ordered around 25,000 aircraft seats as part of revamping the fleet, its chief Campbell Wilson said on Wednesday. Emphasising that "plenty of things" are going on as part of the transformation at Air India, Wilson said the focus is on integration, growth, optimisation and customer experience. As part of Tata Group consolidating its aviation business, AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India, is getting merged with Air India Express and Vistara with Air India. There is "immense flexibility" for the group whether it is full or low cost services and "we are in a good position," the Air India CEO and MD said at the CAPA India Aviation Summit here. According to him, Air India will be retrofitting more than 100 aircraft and has also ordered around 25,000 seats as part of retrofitting the planes. About costs for the airline industry, Wilson said airfares have been underperforming overall inflation. Ai

Air India's Delhi-Vancouver flight takes off after delay of 22 hours

Air India's Vancouver flight from Delhi of June 1 finally departed at 3.15 am on Sunday after a delay of nearly 22 hours, a source said. The flight was scheduled to take off at 5.30 am on Saturday but a "technical" issue forced the airline to reschedule it. "The Delhi-Vancouver flight of Air India, which was to depart on Saturday morning, finally left at around 3.15 am on Sunday," the source said. "AI 185...was delayed because of technical issues and subsequently due to crew coming under the mandatory Flight Duty Time Limitations," an Air India spokesperson had said in a statement on Saturday. This was at least the third time in the last one week that Air India's ultra-long haul flights had to face inordinate delay for one reason or the other. Earlier, after a delay of more than 30 hours, the airline's Delhi-San Francisco flight, which was originally scheduled to depart at around 1530 hrs on Thursday, took off at 2155 hrs the next day. However, despite the passengers' plight due

AI Express cabin crew union, airline management discuss various issues

Representatives of a cabin crew union at Air India Express and airline management on Tuesday held discussions on salary and other issues during the meeting convened by the labour department as part of the ongoing conciliation proceedings, according to a source. The next meeting is scheduled for July 2, the source said. The Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU), which represents a section of the cabin crew at the airline, had filed a complaint before the labour department last year. Following the complaint, a conciliation process is happening under the Industrial Disputes Act. Room sharing, lack of proper support, revised salary structure and alleged differential treatment of experienced crew members of Air India Express are among the issues flagged by the union. The source, on the condition of anonymity, said various issues were discussed at the meeting held on Tuesday, including those related to salary and accommodation for cabin crew during layovers. At the meeting, the ...

Software woes hit Air India Express as flight cancellations resume

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

Air India gives increments to staff, announces performance bonus for pilots

Air India on Thursday announced annual salary increments for its staff, and also introduced an annual target performance bonus for pilots, according to sources. This is the first appraisal process after Tata Group took over the loss-making airline a little over two years ago. On Thursday, Air India CHRO Ravindra Kumar GP announced salary increments for employees, with effect from April 1, 2024, as well as performance bonus payouts for FY 2023-24 based on company and individual performance, sources said. They said that Air India, which is in the process of revamping itself under a five-year transformation plan, is providing competitive salary increments to attract and retain talent as part of larger efforts to have a performance-driven and meritocratic culture among the employees. Air India has around 18,000 employees. The airline has rolled out annual appraisals for all employees, who joined before December 31, 2023, including ground staff, cabin crew and pilots. The appraisals ar

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

Reduced flights impacting cabin crew salary: Air India Express union

The Air India Express Employees Union has claimed that more than 100 employees have not been able to work due to the unavailability of airport entry passes

AI Express flight from B'luru makes emergency landing after fire in engine

An Air India Express flight from Bengaluru to Kochi made an emergency landing at Bengaluru after a fire was noticed in one of the engines, the Bangalore International Airport Limited said on Sunday. All the passengers and crew were evacuated and no one was injured, the Air India Express said in a statement. According to sources, the fire was noticed minutes after the take off. The crew members alerted the Air Traffic Controller and a full scale emergency was declared. Soon after emergency landing at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru, the fire was extinguished. "On May 18, 2024, IX 1132 from Bengaluru to Kochi made an emergency landing at BLR Airport at 2312 hrs, due to a reported fire in one of the engines," a spokesperson of the BIAL, which manages KIA, said in a statement. A full-scale emergency was declared, and the fire was promptly extinguished upon landing. All 179 passengers and six crew members have been successfully evacuated from the aircraft, the

Air India Express cancels some flights due to rostering system issues

Air India Express cancelled some flights on Wednesday as the airline grapples with crew rostering system issues, according to sources. The Tata Group-owned carrier, which generally operates around 380 flights daily, has moved to a new rostering system. Since there are some issues with the system, it is impacting the scheduling for cabin crew and pilots, the sources said. At the Delhi airport, seven Air India Express flights -- four departures and three arrivals -- for the period between 1.50 am and 8 pm have been cancelled for Wednesday, sources said. There were also flight cancellations at a few other airports, the sources added. However, the total number of flight cancellations could not be immediately ascertained. There was no comment from Air India Express. The latest development comes a week after the airline witnessed disruptions due to a section of cabin crew reporting sick to protest against the alleged mismanagement at the carrier. The strike was called off on May 9 and

'A-I Express sees no flight cancellation on Tue, operations near normal'

A week after being hit by disruptions due to a cabin crew strike, officials said the operations of Air India Express have almost normalised and there was no flight cancellation on Tuesday. Protesting against alleged mismanagement at the carrier, a section of the cabin crew had reported sick last week. As a result, the carrier had to cancel hundreds of flights since last Tuesday. An official said that operations have normalised and all the scheduled flights were operated on Tuesday. Another official said the airline operated around 345 flights and no flights were cancelled. This is the first day since last Tuesday when there has been no cancellation and out of the total services today, around 201 were international flights, the official added. The strike by the cabin crew was called last Thursday and the Tata Group-owned carrier also withdrew termination letters issued to 25 cabin crew following a conciliation meeting convened by the chief labour commissioner in the national ...

AI Express fiasco: Woman couldn't see hospitalised husband before death

In a heartbreaking incident, a woman, whose husband was in a hospital ICU in Oman, was unable to see him one last time before he died there due to the cancellation of her Air India Express flight to that country last week, her family alleged. The woman, Amrita, had booked tickets for May 8 to see her husband in Muscat, but on reaching the airport here, she was told that the flight was cancelled. Her protest at the airport earned her a ticket for the next day on another Air India Express flight, but unfortunately, that too was cancelled and she had to abandon her travel plans altogether. On Monday, news of her husband's death reached her from Oman. "It was so unfair that she could not see him for one last time. We begged the airline to accommodate us on some other flight so that we could see him for one last time. But they did not do anything," Amrita's mother told a TV channel. She also said that Amrita's husband had said that he wanted to see his wife and kids and that is why the

Air India Express slowly restoring its flights, stabilising the network

Air India Express is slowly restoring its flights and stabilising the network, an official said on Sunday while the cabin crew union emphasised that all members who had reported sick have joined duty. The Tata Group-owned airline, which operates around 380 services daily, has cancelled at least more than 20 flights on Sunday, the official in the know said and added that full normalcy is expected by Tuesday morning. There was no official comment from Air India Express. The strike by a section of cabin crew to protest against the alleged mismanagement at the airline had forced cancellation of hundreds of flights since Tuesday night. On Thursday, the strike was called off and the carrier also withdrew termination letters issued to 25 cabin crew following a conciliation meeting convened by the chief labour commissioner in the national capital. The meeting was attended by representatives of the airline and the Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU). In a release on Sunday, the unio

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

Strikes and lockouts down 90% in the last decade, show govt data

Person days lost to industrial disputes see a decline

Air India Express withdraws termination of 25 cabin crew members

The airline, which cancelled 85 flights on Thursday, is receiving help from its parent company, Air India, which is operating flights on 20 of its routes

AI Express cabin crew calls off strike; airline assures to look into issues

A section of Air India Express cabin crew has decided to withdraw strike and join back for duty after the airline assured to look into all the issues raised by the cabin crew, sources said on Thursday. Besides, the airline has agreed to withdraw the termination letters issued to 25 cabin crew and the management will review the cases as per service regulations, they added. The Tata Group-owned airline has cancelled more than 170 flights since Tuesday night after the cabin crew started reporting sick to protest against the alleged mismanagement at the airline. The decisions on withdrawing the strike and the termination letters were agreed upon during the conciliation meeting between the cabin crew representatives and the airline representatives at the Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) in the national capital on Thursday.

Air India Express: 85 flights cancelled; Air India to support on 20 routes

If a passenger's flight is cancelled or delayed more than 3 hours, they have the option to either receive a full refund on the flight or reschedule it for a later date without any additional fees