Air India Express is starting shared hotel stays for cabin crew, leaving them sour

There's trouble brewing inside Air India Express, the international low-cost carrier subsidiary airline of Tata Group-owned Air India. According to reports, Air India Express' cabin crew fraternity is planning to go on an en masse sick leave to protest against cost-cutting measures announced under the accommodation policy. 

Reports also say that the cabin crew is unhappy with not just the latest accommodation policy, but also their salaries. 

Accommodation policy

• A circular dated June 8 announced that cabin crew members and employees up to Deputy Manager will start sharing rooms during their official travel from June 15 onwards. 

• The new rule has sparked a dispute between the employees and the management, with reports also saying that Aloke Singh, CEO of Air India Express, walked out of a townhall meeting with employees. 
• Under the new policy, cabin crew members will have to share rooms during layovers. The affected employees say this affects their privacy and well-being. 
• The unrest is expected to have an impact on flight operations across India.  
• The Pune Mirror reported that Air India Express justifies the decision as having adopted the practice from Air Asia India.
• Air India Express and Air Asia India were merged earlier this year. 

Grievances over salaries

• There is ongoing unrest in Air India Express over the revised salaries. The management has been accused of heavily favouring the new recruits over the old more experienced employees. 
• Air India Express has also been accused of unfairly treating a disabled employee. 

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This is not the first time that Air India has been embroiled in a dispute with its employees. When the main carrier Air India was still a national carrier, the management had introduced similar cost-cutting measures which required cabin crew members to share accommodation while at work. This had not gone down well with the employees.

On the other hand, Air India Express and Air Asia India are on a hiring spree to expand operations. According to one report, AI Express and Air Asia India have recruited some 800 trainee cabin crew members in just a year alone. And AI Express had recruited over 280 pilots in just a year from June 2022. 

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