24 May 2024
4 Min Read
CW Team
A pilot who was supposed to pilot an Air India Express aircraft arrived in Riyadh on time on May 19. He was trained on a Boeing 737, but he found out at the pre-flight briefing that the aircraft he was meant to fly to Cochin was an Airbus A320. There was a fifteen-hour delay when the airline flew in a replacement crew.
Due to issues with a new scheduling software that manages rosters, Tata-owned Air India Express (AIX) has been unable to get things back in order for about two weeks after disruptions caused by cabin workers taking widespread sick leave. The carrier was attempting to manage the sick leaves when the new software was introduced.
The airline has been forced to resort to manually identifying workers and arranging them for flights, as several pilots and cabin crew members have pointed out. According to those with knowledge of the situation, around 50 of the 300 daily Air India Express flights have been impacted. The additional 20 daily flights being operated by Vistara and Air India, airlines of the Tata Group, are helping out.
The airline was having trouble with the new software, so V S. Rajkumar, the chief of operations, wrote to the staff, requesting patience. According to a representative for Air India Express, the problems have been much reduced, and this week they plan to fully recover.
Air India Express migrated to the new scheduling software from the Canada-based CAE Group on May 5. About 100 flights were cancelled on May 8 and 9 due to the mass sick leaves. While the cabin crew resumed work after the airline agreed to take back employees it had sacked, among other things, its troubles persisted.
According to the report, an executive who has overseen software transitions at a large South Asian airline stated that the airline needs to have proper User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with the new software before going live. The executive explained that this is to ensure the software does what it was designed to do in real-world situations. The executive noted that during the transition, there is always something that goes wrong, and the best and most well-trained people should be in charge during such a process.
However, an AIX executive said that transferring to new software always causes teething issues. The AIX executive likened it to upgrading from an Android to a new iPhone, stating that the disruption by cabin crew also happened at the same time, resulting in a severe disruption. The executive added that when the new schedule for June comes in, everything will be in place.
Additionally, John Strickland, the founder and director of JLS Consulting, stated that one can never underestimate the cultural and human aspects of any merger between two companies. Strickland explained that it’s never just about spreadsheets, calculations, and so-called synergies, as human beings are not as neat and tidy as spreadsheets can be. Strickland noted that they are talking about culture clashes, expectations, and styles of management, and all of those things pose problems.