Bengaluru, 7 March

Air India started its subsidiary Air India Express in 2005 to make connectivity convenient across the country, provide shorter international hauls and improve the flying experience.

Unfortunately, customer dissatisfaction is growing with frequently delayed and cancelled flights. Passengers are allegedly not informed about delays or cancellations, customer care is non-existent, luggage goes missing or is lost and getting a refund is a Herculean task.

Air India Express flies more than 30 flights to and from Bengaluru, and yet it does neither have a functioning offline office nor a contact person in the City.

When Salar News visited the Air India office in JC Road, the officials had no information about their subsidiary airlines. The WhatsApp virtual assistance helpline has no option to address the grievances of the flyer.

The biggest grievance of customers is the airlines allegedly merging passengers of two flights into one, ultimately delaying the earlier flight due to a shortage of flyers. The passengers of the first flight end up waiting for more than four hours in the airport.

"The flights are delayed or cancelled without prior notifications. The crew members at the airport are not well-trained to handle the questions of the frustrated customers. The airline needs to get a grip," told Abhishek Kumar, an IT employee who flew from Bengaluru to Ranchi, to Salar News.

Air India Express customer care officials were not reachable for comment on the issue when contacted.

Another flyer Naveen Swamy, an architect who cancelled his Air India Express flight from Bengaluru to Pune weeks ago, claims he is yet to receive a refund from the airline.  "Despite visiting the Air India Office at Unity Building in Bengaluru, I did not get my refund of about Rs 3,000,” he said.

The complaints about the airline have spread across social media, including LinkedIn and X. Shashank Tiwari on LinkedIn said flying with Air India Express was his worst experience. “I travelled with Air India Express from Varanasi to Bengaluru on 6 February. At Bengaluru airport, I received broken baggage and showed the same to airport crew Ajith who asked me to raise the concern to the id: blrapt@airindiaexpress, I was told a team would reach out to me within a week. It has been more than two weeks but there is no response from Air India Express,” he said on LinkedIn.