'Hope to stabilise flight operations by weekend': Vistara issues statement amid cancellations, delays

Tata group-owned Vistara Airlines, which has been facing flight disruptions and cancellations due to unrest among pilots, on Friday said they are trying to solve the impasse on a war footing and would stabilise flight operations by weekend. 

The Tata-owned airline had to cancel several flights due to a shortage of crew in the past few days. The pilots have also been protesting against the airline’s merger with Air India, their pay revision and rostering issues.

Taking to X (previously Twitter), Vistara said: "We have had a significant number of flight cancellations and delays owing to various operational reasons and due to high utilisation of resources, there was limited room to cope with contigencies. We are addressing the issue on a war footing... The situation has already improved, with our on-time performance increasing to over 80% for the last two days. We hope to stabilise our operations for the entire April by this weekend.

The airline has deployed larger aircraft like B787-9 Dreamliner and A321neo on select domestic routes to combine flights or accommodate more number of customers, wherever possible

 

Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan on Friday in an interview said the airline is short of only 20 flights to meet their daily target. "Vistara used to operate 350 flights, we are short by 20 flights or so. These flights have been cancelled to provide a little buffer," Kannan told CNBC TV18.

He said that the airline "didn't plan adequately for pilots' sick leaves, which usually spikes at the end of the fiscal". 

He added that the number of sick leaves taken in FY24 isn't much higher than the previous years.

Kannan said the need to cancel flights at short notice will not happen after this weekend as the buffer situation for pilots is stabilising.

"It might be a reduced schedule... we are back to normal as far as the flights that are operating... the need to cancel flights at short notice will not happen after this weekend," he said.

Amid the cancellations, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday ordered the airline to file daily reports on flight cancellations and delays.

In a post on X on Tuesday, the Ministry of civil aviation also said it was “monitoring the situation of Vistara flight cancellations” though flight operations were managed by airlines and underlined that the airlines were required to take stipulated steps to minimise passenger inconvenience.

“Airlines have to comply with DGCA norms to ensure passenger facilitation in case of cancellation or delay of flights,” the ministry said.

The airline has also been asked to ensure that the relevant provisions of CAR Section-3, Series M, Part-IV on “facilities to be provided to passengers by airlines due to denied boarding, cancellation of flights and delays in flights” are complied with like advance information, an option of refund, compensation (if applicable) etc. to the passengers.

Airlines are supposed to comply with the norms of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ensure passenger facilitation in case of cancellation or delay of flights.