Domestic Air India flights delayed over shortage of cabin crew, claim officials

Officials claimed the shortage of cabin crew has caused Delhi based crew to fly almost in excess of the annual DGCA limit of 1,000 hours

Air India flights operating on the domestic sector are reportedly witnessing delays due to shortage of cabin crew.

Officials said Air India is trying to bring back the crew who applied for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS). (File image)

This development comes after the airline saw at least six flights to US and Canada getting delayed due to unavailability of cabin crew last week.

Officials close to the development said flights are getting stuck on ground due to engineering related issues.

“Mumbai bound AI-805 to Delhi which was to return to Mumbai at 7.30pm was also delayed and it was rescheduled to 4am,” the official added.

Officials said Air India is trying to bring back the crew who applied for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) earlier in November in order to fill the crew crunch.

“The shortage of cabin crew has caused Delhi based crew to fly almost in excess of the annual directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) limit of 1,000 hours,” the official said adding, more than 200 of them have flown overtime and cannot be used to operate flights for the coming two months.

“The airline has forced crew to travel Deadhead (passenger in uniform) to Delhi and then undertake ultra long haul flights without mandated pre-flight rest of 36 hours and two local nights and made it two landings,” a senior crew said.

Crew duty periods are counted from the time of reporting at the airport (two hours before a flight) and ends 30 minutes after landing at their final destination.

“The route patterns provided have flight rosters exceeding 22:50 and even 23 hours of flight duty for the crew and are endangering safety through fatigue,” the crew alleged.