Putting tens of thousands of passengers in difficulty, Air India Express cancelled/delayed over 90 international and domestic flights with a section of crew members reporting sick en masse on May 7.
Kerala was hit hardest by the flight disruptions, as the airline is the largest player from the State in the international sector.
Over 30 services, each flight having carrying capacity of 180 passengers, were cancelled in Kerala alone. As many as nine services, including three arrivals and four departures, were cancelled at the Thiruvananthapuram airport while the airline cancelled seven services, including four arrivals and three departures, at the Cochin international airport.
As many as 12 services from the Calicut international airport and four services from the Kannur airport were cancelled till evening.
Airing their protest, passengers said the airline did not inform them about the cancellation on time. The airline’s offer to refund tickets or tickets at another date failed to pacify them.
The departures entrance of Terminal 3 of the Cochin international airport on Wednesday after the cancellation of AIE flights. | Photo Credit: H. VIBHU
Pradeep, going to Muscat from Thiruvananthapuram, said he had to report to his workplace on Thursday morning as his visa would expire on Friday.
The Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah, Thiruvananthapuram-Abu Dhabi, Thiruvananthapuram-Dubai, Thiruvananthapuram-Muscat, and Thiruvananthapuram-Bengaluru flights were cancelled.
At the Cochin airport, the flights to Sharjah, Bahrain, Dammam, and Muscat between 2.05 a. m. and 8.50 a. m. were cancelled. An earlier flight to Dubai took off after 12 midnight. Among the flights cancelled was the one to Bengaluru scheduled for 7 a.m. on Wednesday.
It is also not known whether the airline company will resume full-fledged scheduled services on Thursday as calls to the airline office remained unanswered.
The disruption will have a cascading effect on the airline network. So the disruptions will last at least for the next few days and it will take time to resume full-fledged operations, an airline source said.
(with inputs from regional bureaus)
