Air India Express row: Airline reinstates sacked employees

The crisis at Air India Express ended on Thursday evening after protesting cabin crew members agreed to resume work immediately and the airline withdrew the termination letters issued to some 30 crew members.

The breakthrough came at a reconciliation meeting at the office of the Chief Labour Commissioner in Delhi where the airline assured that it would look into the issues raised by them. It would still take the airline at least three days to restore normal flight services. 

"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 apologize to those inconvenienced by these unintended disruptions. It is not in keeping with our usual service standards, and we will review it internally to ensure accountability,” the airline said in a statement.

“They (protesting cabin crew) have agreed to resume work immediately and we will be withdrawing the termination letters… But the cases of the 25cabin crew will still be reviewed internally as per the airline’s service rules,” Indian express reported quoting a source.

Over a hundred cabin crew, mostly senior members, reported sick starting Tuesday evening,  to protest against the changes in the carrier’s human resources (HR) policies. The mass sick leaves led to massive disruptions for the airline, leading to 90 flight cancellations and delays on Wednesday and 85 cancellations on Thursday.

Late on Wednesday, the airline handed out termination letters to 25 senior cabin crew members.
Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India) are in the process of being merged and the airline has also stepped up hiring of cabin crew to support its expansion. Meanwhile, on the full-service carrier front, Vistara will be merged with Air India. The recent pilots’ protest at Vistara was because of new pay structure that is in line with Air India, but not as remunerative as the contracts Vistara pilots already had.