Several Air India and Air India Express flights to and from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport were delayed on Monday due to a protest by employees of government-run ground handling agency AI Airport Services Limited (AIASL) over wage revision and other demands.
Notably, AIASL is responsible for providing ground handling support to Air India group airlines, including Air India and Air India Express, as well as several international airlines operating at Mumbai airport and at other airports across the country.
Several flights to and from Mumbai were delayed
Air India did not announce the number of its services that were affected due to the protest by AIASL employees.
According to a report by The Indian Express, at least 15 flights departing from Mumbai airport were delayed, with disruptions ranging from 90 minutes to two hours.
AIASL serves around 80 airlines, including international carriers such as Flydubai, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Oman Air and Salam Air, as well as domestic operators, across 84 airports in India. The number of employees in the organization is about 20 thousand employees.
The company operates about 650 flights daily through these airports, and handles 35% of international operations and 65% of domestic services.
What Air India AIASL said in the protest
In a statement, Air India said that flight operations were affected due to the industrial action by employees of a third-party ground handling agency at Mumbai airport.
“Our airport teams are working closely with all stakeholders to minimize the inconvenience it may cause to guests and normal operations as soon as possible,” the airline said.
Work resumed after employees received assurances from management that their demands would be reviewed, AIASL said.
“There was a muted silence by a certain section of employees. We asked them to submit (their demands) to us in writing for discussion. They were kind enough to come back and join the work again,” AIASL CEO Rambabu said.
He added that the company will study all requests submitted by the protesting employees.
“They gave us a letter. We told them that we will go through the same thing in terms of policies,” Rambabu said.
With inputs from PTI
