A woman in Kerala suffered an irrepairable loss after her ailing husband died alone at a hospital in Oman’s Muscat and she was stuck back home after Air India Express her flight to the Gulf country on two occassion amid the cabin crew crisis of the airline.
The woman had booked a Air India Express flight to Muscat for May 8 but was informed on reaching the airport that it has been cancelled. (Credit: PTI)
New Delhi: A woman in India has been left with lifelong grief due to her husband’s death at a hospital in Oman as she could not visit him in his last moments due to the cancellation of her Air India Express flights to the Gulf nation last week. irreparable
Amrita, a resident of Kerala, had booked tickets for May 8 to see her husband in Muscat after he was hospitalised due to a health ailment and shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after his condition worsened. The woman left for the Thiruvananthapuram Airport and upon reaching, she was told the flight had been cancelled, her family members were quoted as saying by PTI.
Air India was facing a crisis until last week due to a large-scale strike of its staffers and pilots after several employees called in sick at the same time, leading to the cancellation of around 100 flights which impacted about 15,000 passengers.
The woman objected firmly to the cancellation following which she was given a ticket for the next day on a different flight to Muscat but, shockingly, that was cancelled too by the airline, forcing the woman to drop her plans to see her ailing husband.
Her protest at the airport earned her a ticket for the next day on another Air India Express flight, but unfortunately, that too was cancelled and she had to abandon her travel plans altogether. Amrita’s worst fears came true on Monday after she received information from Oman that her husband died at the hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest.
“It was so unfair that she could not see him for one last time. We begged the airline to accommodate us on some other flight so that we could see him for one last time. But they did not do anything,” Amrita’s mother told a TV channel.
She said that Amrita’s husband had told them he wanted to see his wife and kids which is why the woman booked ticket to travel to Muscat in an urgent need.
Speaking to media persons, Amrita claimed that the airline staff at the airport and on customer care were of no help after the second was cancelled too and told her there was nothing they could do and the flights to Oman were sold out for the next four days and nothing could be done to accommodate her.
Tata Group-owned Air India is yet to react or issue any statement in this connection as the airline tried to bring normalcy to its operation following the resolution of the employees’ strike which lasted for several days.
Air India cabin crew crisis
Last week, Air India Express faced significant disruptions as a considerable number of flights were canceled due to a shortage of cabin crew members. This shortage stemmed from a protest by some crew members, who reported sick to voice grievances regarding alleged mismanagement within the Tata Group-owned airline.
Tensions had been simmering among a faction of cabin crew members, particularly following the initiation of the merger process involving AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India, with Air India Express.
However, the strike by a portion of the cabin crew was called off on May 10, and the airline rescinded termination notices issued to 25 striking crew members. Between May 8 and May 10, Air India Express was compelled to cancel more than 260 flights due to the shortage of cabin crew, as confirmed by a source within the airline.
