Air India Express flights from Kannur cancelled again as air carrier struggles back to normalcy

Kannur: Air India Express flight services continued to be hit on Saturday even after the section of the cabin crew who had been on strike since Tuesday night called it off on Thursday. The AIX flights scheduled from Kannur to Dammam and Abu Dhabi at 5.15am and 9.20 am respectively were cancelled.

The air carrier had on Friday cancelled five flights on four routes from Kolkata as the airline is making efforts to get back to normalcy following the cabin crew-related crisis, an official said. The airline cancelled two flights between Kolkata and Hyderabad, one each to Chennai, Cochin and Ayodhya, an Air India Express spokesperson said. These were among the total of 120 flights, both domestic and international, that were cancelled across the country on Friday.

According to the spokesperson, besides the 120 cancellations, the airline operated 246 flights to various destinations of which 20 flights were operated by Air India and two by Vistara. Sources in the airline said though the cabin crew started reporting back to work, putting them on flights was not possible immediately due to a lot of technicalities related to rostering and re-rostering. Things are expected to be fully normal in one-and-a-half days.

Sources also said that some time will also be consumed in the medical check-up of the cabin crew who reported back to work, besides working out the entire duty roster.

Notably, the strike (sudden mass sick leave) by a section of the cabin crew since Tuesday night had resulted in cancellation of more than 170 flights was called off on Thursday evening. The airline also had withdrawn the termination letters issued to 25 striking cabin crew. The cabin crew had started reporting sick to protest against alleged mismanagement at the airline.
(With PTI inputs.)