Cabin crew shortage forces Air India to cancel flights

Cabin crew constraints are impacting Air India's ultra long haul flights, with the Tatas-owned carrier deciding to either reschedule or cancel certain services to San Francisco and Vancouver, according to airline sources.

The sources said the airline is either delaying departures or cancelling some of its ultra long haul flights amid cabin crew shortages and the situation is resulting in inconvenience to passengers in this peak winter travel season.

Generally, ultra long haul flights are those having duration of more than 16 hours.

"Air India flights AI-183/AI184 (Delhi-SFO-Delhi) for December 10 and December 13 stand cancelled," Air India said in an internal circular on December 9.

In another internal circular, the airline said that "due to cabin crew constraints its flights -- AI101 and AI 102 (Delhi-New York-Delhi) as well as AI 185/ AI186 (Delhi-Vancouver-Delhi) were being rescheduled".

The airline declined to comment on the issue.

On Friday (Dec 9), Air India said some of its flights to North America were getting delayed owing to airport entry pass issues for the cabin crew.

Amid a long waiting period for US visas, the airline has been facing shortage of cabin crew and senior pilots for ultra long haul flights. In the wake of the cabin crew crunch, Air India had recently given an option to its cabin crew who had opted for its voluntary retirement scheme to extend their release date from the services by up to January 31, 2023.

-B