Air India Express crew joins duty after mass sick leave, service to be normal by Tuesday.

The Tata Group-owned airline, which operates around 380 services daily, cancelled at least 20 flights on Sunday. Air India Express is slowly restoring its flights and stabilising services, PTI said quoting an official in the know. All cabin crew members who were on sick leave have joined duty, it said. “All the cabin crew members who reported sick have joined their duty by May 11, 2024,” the agency quoted a release by Air India Express Employees Union on Sunday. However, due to a glitch in the company’s scheduling software, it was reportedly showing that staff were on sick leave, it added. The Tata Group-owned airline, which operates around 380 services daily, cancelled at least 20 flights on Sunday, the official said, adding that full normalcy is expected by Tuesday morning. A strike by cabin crew members against the airline’s alleged mismanagement forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights since Tuesday. However, the strike was called off following a conciliation meeting convened by the chief labour commissioner in Delhi on Thursday. The carrier also withdrew termination letters issued to 25 cabin crew members following the strike. The meeting was attended by representatives of the airline and the Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU). After the meeting, Air India Express said, “We are pleased with the progress we made at the conciliation meeting and welcome our cabin crew colleagues back at work. This will help us swiftly restore our flight schedule and fulfil our commitments to our guests. We sincerely apologise to those inconvenienced by these unintended disruptions… As we gradually bring our operations back to normalcy, we urge our guests booked to fly with us to check their flight status before heading to the airport…” In April, Vistara, a joint venture of Tata Sons Private Limited and Singapore Airlines, cancelled its flight services due to crew unavailability. It was later forced to scale down operations after pilots were reported sick. Air India Express operates over 2,500 flights weekly across 31 domestic and 14 international airports. Air India has a fleet of over 70 aircraft comprising Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s.