Owing to the significant number of flight cancellations due to the unavailability of pilots, the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Tuesday sought a detailed report from Air Vistara , as per media reports. It has been reported that the pilots of Air Vistara have been calling in sick protesting against the latest pay revision that significantly reduced their salaries.
According to the airline officials, teams have been mobilised to minimise the inconvenience. As per reports, the airline has also deployed larger aircraft like B787-9 Dreamliner and A321neo on select domestic routes to combine flights or accommodate more customers.
Dozens of flights cancelled, delayed
This development came after at least thirty-eight Vistara flights departing from key cities were cancelled this morning. As per media reports, as many as fifteen flights from Mumbai, twelve from Delhi and eleven from Bengaluru were among those cancelled.
A day before, over fifty Vistara flights were cancelled and about a hundred and sixty were delayed.
Why are the pilots protesting?
The airline is reeling under pressure due to crew unavailability as the pilots have been reporting sick to protest against the latest pay revision that has reduced certain components of their salaries.
As per media reports, certain components of the pilots' salaries have been reduced while incentives linked to flying hours have been raised.
What did the airline say?
While apologising for the disruptions caused to the passengers, a Vistara spokesperson also informed that the airline has decided to curtail the number of operating flights.
"We have decided to temporarily reduce the number of flights we operate, to ensure adequate connectivity across our network", the spokesperson said.
Assuring that the regular operations will resume soon, the spokesperson also asserted that efforts were being made to stabilise the situation.
