Air India ground staff strike at Mumbai airport ends, 30 flights delayed
Over 30 flights of Air India have been delayed after the contractual ground staff of AIATSL at the Mumbai airport went on a strike.
A day-long strike by Air India’s contractual ground staff, reportedly in support of colleagues who had been sacked, delayed over 30 of the carrier’s flights to and from Mumbai on Thursday, officials said.
The striking workers were contracted by the airline’s subsidiary, Air Transport Services Limited or AIATSL. They called off their strike Thursday night
An Air India spokesperson had attributed the airline’s flight delays at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport to the “sudden industrial situation”. “We are assessing the situation and all efforts are being made to minimise delays or disruption,” the spokesperson said.
“Eight arriving domestic flights and 16 international departure flights were affected with an average delay of two hours till 8am,” a spokesperson of the Mumbai International Airport Private Limited (MIAL) said.
A Bangkok-bound flight was delayed by over six hours and left 8:18 am instead of 1:45 am due to the strike, which started on Wednesday night. Another one to Newark finally left at 4:08 am, nearly two-and-a-half hours after its scheduled departure of 1:30 am.
Air India officials said they had called additional support staff from home to help passengers with checking in to avoid any delay in the procedure.
