Relief to many including expats; Air India to operate service on 20 routes

NEW DELHI: The Air India has come up with a new way to face the strike of Air India Express employees, which has hit people including expatriate Malayalees very hard. Officials said Air India will operate service on 20 routes of Air India Express. 72 services of Air India Express were canceled today and the airline’s spokesperson said that it would be operating 292 flights. It is expected that with more Air India flights operating service, the crisis can be solved to a large extent.

Air India has given an ultimatum to the striking employees. They have been asked to join duty by this evening. Air India Express had earlier dismissed 30 cabin crew members who participated in the strike. The company's assessment is that their unexpected leave was deliberate. Air India Express, in its dismissal letter to the cabin crew, clarified that the mass leave was planned. 300 cabin crew members took mass sick leave.

86 services were disrupted yesterday. More than 20,000 passengers are in crisis. The unexpected strike that started Tuesday night is still going on. The journey of many including those from Kerala to the Gulf, has been disrupted. Most of them are people whose visas will expire soon and some others are emergency travelers. The passengers came to know about the cancellation of the service when they reached the airport.

Meanwhile, the central government is also intervening to resolve the crisis. The management and the protesting employees will attend the meeting at 2 pm. The aviation ministry had earlier sent a notice to Air India Express.

The employees are protesting raising complaints of not getting wages according to their qualifications after Tata Group took over the Air India Express. The employees strongly oppose the decision to merge Air India Express with AirAsia and other airlines owned by the Tata Group.