Mumbai: Air India's ground staff on strike, off-duty workers called
Following a strike by contractual ground staff of Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL), a subsidiary of Air India, several flights were delayed in Mumbai on Thursday. Nearly 400 members went on strike as they were not paid Diwali bonuses. As a result, Air India called off-duty permanent staff to work to help in the check-in process. Here's more on this.
A number of international and domestic flights were delayed
The staff members who have gone on strike are responsible for checking-in of passengers, offloading bags, and cleaning of the aircraft. As a result, flights were hit. As many as 10 domestic flights and three international flights were delayed "The delay was up to three hours," a spokesperson of the national carrier said. However, ANI reported 16 flights were delayed.
After delay of seven hours, Bangkok bound flight departed
Reportedly, a Bangkok bound flight from Mumbai left at 8:08 AM after a delay of seven hours. The Mumbai-Newark flight departed at 04:08 AM instead of 1:30 AM.
Passengers express their frustration on Twitter
On Twitter, many fliers expressed their displeasure and blamed Air India for mismanagement. @_zaid982 wrote: commercial are on flash strikes at cst mumbai airport. Due to this all flights domestic as well international delay. #airindiaworstmanagement (sic) @Anandloki tweeted: Why did I book this fatichar airline. 676 from Kol to Mum delayed by 3 hrs. No announcement. Just an SMS five-minutes before departure time (sic)
