Air India asks staff to restrict travel on weekends

National carrier Air India (AI) has decided to make the most of this summer and make all its seats available to the air passengers from April15 to June 15, especially during weekends. The airline has asked its staff to restrict their travel, personal or professional, to three days a week, from Tuesday to Thursday.  “During summer holidays, there is a huge demand for travel on weekend flights. The yield on these days is almost three times higher,” says a circular from the airline issued to its employees.

The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and the cabin crew(CC) of the airline thinks that the step is unnecessary and unreasonable. “We anyways travel only when tickets/seats are available on the flight. There are times when we come to the airport, see that the flight is overbooked and go back home,” he asks. “In fact, the circular can be misused as it happened on AI 191 Mumbai-Newark flight on April 15 that was to depart at 2am,” he says. According to AI sources, four family members of a crew were to go by AI 191 and there were 40 seats available on it “Even after the commander requested the general manager (commercial) citing availability of seats, the later refused to accommodate them on the flight.

When contacted, the spokesperson for AI said that the order has been issued to give priority to paid passengers. “This provision was misused by many employees who would block seats for their family and then not travel. The move is purely in the interest of passengers,” he said.” he said.