In what could be major difficulty for passengers, a section of senior crew members in the Air India Express reported sick en masse on May 7 night, forcing the airline to cancel or delay more than 78 international and domestic flights in the country. Kerala is perhaps the State that is hit hardest by the disruption of services as the airline is the largest player in the State in the international sector.
Thousands of passengers were stranded in the four international airports in Kerala after the flights were cancelled or delayed.
At the Thiruvananthapuram international airport, four flights, including domestic and international were cancelled until 10 a.m. on May 8. The flights cancelled include Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah, Thiruvananthapuram-Abu Dhabi, Thiruvananthapuram, and Dubai.
