Air India provides its employees with complimentary travel benefits for their family members under the Employee Leisure Travel (ELT) scheme, allowing each staff member to avail up to 14 free tickets in a financial year. However, an internal investigation by the airline has revealed that some employees misused this facility. Out of the company’s 24,000 employees, more than 4,000 staff members were found to have falsely listed unrelated individuals as family members and allowed them to travel on the free tickets. The probe also indicated that some employees allegedly sold these complimentary tickets to others at higher prices. Since most of these violations reportedly occurred during the last financial year, the airline is preparing to take strict action against those involved. The company is expected to recover the financial benefits obtained through fraudulent means and may also impose penalties. Reports suggest that many of the employees involved in these irregularities joined after the airline was acquired by the Tata Group in January 2022. In response, the airline has tightened the ELT rules to prevent further misuse.
Meanwhile, amid the ongoing West Asia crisis, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has temporarily relaxed duty time regulations for Air India crew operating on international routes until April 30. As the airline is currently unable to use the airspace of Iran and Iraq, it has been rerouting flights to Europe and the United States via Egypt. Due to the longer routes, flight time has been extended from 1 hour 30 minutes to 11 hours 30 minutes, while duty time has been increased from 1 hour 45 minutes to 11 hours 45 minutes.
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