Cabin crew shortage hits AI flights

Chennai: A shortage of cabin crew and other staff is reportedly affecting Air India's efforts to operate domestic flights on time from Chennai.
On Tuesday, sources said, a Chennai-Delhi (IC 539) flight was delayed by an hour because cabin crew wern't available and had to be flown in from Delhi. The aircraft and the passengers had to wait till then.
The aircraft to be operated as IC 539 arrived as IC 429 from Delhi at 2.40 pm but there were no inflight crew to operate the evening service to Delhi.
In Chennai there around 160 cabin crew for Air India which operates around 26 flights a day. Several services, including to Thiruvananthapuram, were withdrawn and the airline is using skeletal cabin crew.
According to rules, cabin crew should be inside the aircraft 40 minutes before the passengers but this is rarely the case on AI flights, said an airport official.
The airline is often forced to violate the flight duty time limitation of the cabin crew. Further, it uses only four cabin crew for an A 320 and A319 aircraft though the National Aviation Company Limited (Nacil) told the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) that six crew for A320 aircraft and eight crew for A321 would be used, said a source.
11/11/10 V Ayyappan/Times of India

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Categories: Air India Domestic Nov 2010, Air India Nov 2010, Airports Nov 2010