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Air India Express has a big mess on its hands. More than 100 of its flight crews called out sick at the same time, throwing its operations into chaos. Bloomberg reports that 85 of the low-cost carrier’s flights were cancelled and 90 flights were affected in all. This is the second day that the disruptions have taken place. Reuters reports that at least 175 flights in total have been cancelled.
As parent company Air India prepares to merge its budget subsidiary with AIX, the rebanded name of AirAsia India, India’s Economic Times reports that the Air India Express union members have expressed severe misgivings about the arrangement. Bangladeshi newspaper the Business Standard reports that some of the main complaints concern cuts in pay and discrimination. Workers say they have been getting passed over for job openings in favor of outside candidates despite being qualified for the roles.
“There is a glaring lack of equality in the treatment of employees,” reads a union letter shared with the Business Times. “Salaries, experience and merits are being disregarded, with internal job postings now being filled by candidates external to Air India Express, by passing qualified internal candidates.”
Separately, Bloomberg reports that Air India Express getting combined with AIX is part of Air India’s plans to aggressively scale up its cheap fares business in a bid to take on IndiGo, a regional leader in the space.
The Hindu reports that 25 of the workers had received termination letters from Air India Express. But according to a statement acquired Thursday by the journalist Jagriti Chandra, of The Hindu, the impasse has been broken. The crew members who called out sick will all be getting their jobs back, and the issues they raised will be “getting looked into resolved” by management.