The Indian conglomerate Tata Group is again at the receiving end of passengers’ ire after the group-owned airline Air India Express, which operates bulk of its flight services to the Middle East, cancelled more than 100 flights since Tuesday night as a section of cabin crew reported sick to protest against the alleged mismanagement at the airline.
The cancellations have reportedly impacted around 15,000 passengers, including thousands of Gulf-bound travellers.
Air India Express also has decided to curtail flights till May 13 in view of the ongoing crew protests.
According to media reports on Thursday, the Tata-owned airline also terminated the employment of 30 cabin crew members after they failed to report to work.
Last month, the airline arm of the Tata Group faced widespread passenger ire, following massive cancellations or delay of flights for about a week by Vistara, a group majority-owned airline, due to its pilots’ protests over salary revisions.
Vistara pilots had called in sick to protest the terms of their new contract that will come into effect following the carrier’s upcoming merger with Air India, causing the airline to cancel 150 flights, while as many as 200 have been delayed for about a week since April 5.
Air India Express crew pay cuts
Media reports suggested Air India Express crew members are unhappy with the Tata Group as their salaries have been slashed by almost 20 percent owing to the merger of Air India Express with AirAsia India, another budget airline of the group.
K K Vijaykumar, president of Air India Express Employees Union which counts around 300 crew of the airline as its members, told The Economic Times (ET) that multiple allowances which were part of the employees’ compensation prior to the merger, have been entirely removed, resulting in significant salary cuts.
Air India Express, before the merger, used to operate only to the Middle East countries and the crews were paid multiple allowances.
After the merger, the crew now also has to fly to domestic destinations due to which some of the allowances, such as layover allowance for overnight stay at foreign destinations, are not paid.
The union had earlier written to the Regional Labour Commissioner at Delhi and Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran that the airline is being mismanaged and there is a lack of equality in the treatment of the staff, the ET report said.
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