Vistara on Sunday informed that the airline is scaling back their operations by around 25-30 flights per day after facing significant flight disruptions due to the non-availability of crew this week.
An airline spokesperson said “We are carefully scaling back our operations by around 25-30 flights per day, i.e. roughly 10% 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.”
In a statement on Saturday, the airline chief Vinod Kannan said that more than 98 per cent of the pilots have signed the new contract.
Latest Developments On Vistara Operations
Kannan also said that Vistara will look to review the current rostering system after discussions with pilots.
The airline further said that the cancellations are done mostly in their domestic network and much ahead of time in order to minimize inconvenience to the customers.
“In line with what we had said earlier, with this all the changes for the month of April 2024 have been done and the situation has already gotten better with our on-time performance improving for the last few days. Looking ahead, we are hopeful of stable operations for the rest of the month and beyond”, the spokesperson added.
Why Was There a Reduction in Flight Operations?
The airline company that comes under the Tata Group and is in the process of getting merged with Air India has temporarily reduced flight operations in order to ensure availability of adequate pilot buffer and thereby expects the situation to normalise by May.
A stretched roster on account of the high utilisation of pilots is one of the main reasons behind the recent disruptions, as per the airline, while there are also concerns among a section of pilots about the new contract that will also result in pay revision.
In an interview with with PTI on Friday, the airline chief Kannan said that during a town hall with pilots, some concerns around rostering were raised and pilots were told that the airline would look at how the rostering process can be reviewed.
Out of the airline’s total workforce of around 6,500 people, 1,000 are pilots.
Within the pilot cohort, there are people with different profiles and pilots can bid for different lifestyles on the airline’s advanced rostering system. Among others, there are some who like to fly more and some who don’t want to have layovers, Kannan further added.
Air India and Vistara to Merge
When asked whether pilots are facing uncertainties due to the proposed merger with Air India, Kannan on Friday stressed that the merger is about scale and growth.
The merger is expected to be completed by mid-2025. Currently, Vistara is jointly owned by Tatas and Singapore Airlines.
(with PTI inputs)
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