Air India's crew crunch leading to flight cancellation and delay in US,Canada

Due to the acute shortage of manpower, Tata group-owned Air India is facing difficulty in operating flights to the US and Canada. Passengers have to suffer from flight cancellation and even inordinate delays on this route lately.

Notably, Air Inda is the only air operator flying on ultra-long haul routes. An ultra-long haul flight is the one that operates for more than 16 hours. 

But due to the shortage of crew members, Air India flights are either getting cancelled or delayed, reported PTI. Air India also faced similar issue last year due to the crunch in manpower. 

"There is an acute shortage of manpower, which is impacting airline's operations particularly to the US and Canada," the source in the know told PTI.

The air carrier has cancelled three flights to San Francisco in the US and one flight to Vancouver in Canada in the last 5-6 days. Moreover, passengers travelling on this route have to wait for as long as 12 hours to board their flights, reported the news agency. Air India didn't respond to the quries sent by the news agency on its flight delay on this route.

Tata group is also planning to streamline its aviation business by merging its companies, Air India and Vistara. On the other hand, Air India is also planning to expand its operation and for its implementation the airline has also inducted two leased wide-body Boeing 777 planes as part of its fleet augmentation plans. In the coming two years, Air India is also planning to induct as many as 1500-1700 aircrafts, reported Mint.

Air India has also announced inducting 11 such planes in the fleet and is also trying to dry lease 25 Airbus A320 family planes.

Recently, the airline operator sealed its jumbo deal of 495 jets with Boeing and engine suppliers General Electric and CFM International. With the expansion, Air India aims to revive its dominance in the aviation industry and compete with large players.

(With agency inputs)