Cabin Crew Row: 75 flights of Air India Express canceled again, officials said - situation may become normal by Sunday

The airline said Thursday afternoon that it had canceled 85 flights or about 23 percent of its total daily capacity. Tata Group's airline, which operates about 380 flights daily, had to curtail operations due to cabin crew members suddenly going on leave. The airline has canceled more than 260 flights since Tuesday night.

On average, the airline operates 120 international flights and 260 domestic services daily, the number of these flights has reduced in the last few days. Another official said the striking crew members are returning and the airline is helping them undergo medical checkups and obtain fitness certificates, which are required before they return to duty.

The official said most of the international flights operate in the evening and with the increase in the number of crew members, operations on this front are expected to improve from Friday. Officials said operations were gradually being restored and normalcy was expected to return by Sunday. After the strike ended on Thursday, the airline said it would help quickly restore flight schedules and apologized to passengers who were affected by the disruption.

Several cabin crew members had called in sick to protest against alleged mismanagement at the airline and lack of equality in treatment of staff. Air India Express is in the process of completing the merger with AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India), which has approximately 6,000 employees including over 2,000 cabin crew. The airline has a fleet of 73 aircraft.