Amid escalating disruptions owing to the unavailability of crew, Air Vistara on Sunday announced a reduction of ten percent of its capacity to stabilise operations. In simpler terms, this means scaling back of around 25-30 flights daily. According to the Tata Group airline, most of the cancellations will be within the domestic network.
The aviation service provider is currently is known to operate over 300 flights daily in the ongoing summer schedule.
What did the airline say?
In its official statement, the airline said, "We are carefully scaling back our operations by around 25-30 flights per day, i.e. roughly 10 percent of the capacity we were operating. This will take us back to the same level of flight operations as at the end of February 2024, and provide the much-needed resilience and buffer in the rosters."
According to the carrier, these cancellations are done mostly in the domestic network and much ahead of time to minimise inconvenience to the customers.
"All the affected passengers have already been re-accommodated on other flights, as applicable," it said and added that the on time performance has improved.
The cancellations by Vistara will further reduce the overall available capacity amid rising domestic air passenger traffic and the fares could rise on certain routes due to lesser number of services.
Pilots crisis due to revised salary cut down
On April 1, Vistara said it was reducing operations due to the non-availability of crew and other operational reasons. It was also reported that the pilots of Air Vistara were calling in sick protesting against the latest pay revision that significantly reduced certain components their salaries.
A day later, aviation watchdog DGCA sought a daily report on flight cancellations and delays.
Stretched roster led to crew unavailability: Air Vistara CEO
In an interview, Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan said that a stretched roster was the primary reason behind the flight disruptions.
Kannan further added that the airline would look to review the current rostering system after discussions with pilots and emphasised that there has been no unusual spike in attrition.
