Following the flight cancellations, the airline said it has decided to temporarily reduce the number of flights “to ensure adequate connectivity across our network”.
In the last two days, Vistara, which was operating around 350 flights daily, had to cancel more than a hundred flights.
Amid a number of cancellations and delays in flight operations, Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan is scheduled to meet the on-duty pilots this afternoon, sources told Business Today. The top management will organise an online meeting with the pilots and HR team in attendance.
In the last two days, Vistara, which was operating around 350 flights daily, had to cancel more than a hundred flights since March 30 after a section of Vistara pilots went on sick leave to protest a new salary structure announced in mid-February.
There were 10-15 cancellations daily since the announcement, but the matter escalated over the weekend and the airline had to cancel over 100 flights on Monday and Tuesday.
The airline has said that it has faced a “significant number” of flight cancellations and delays “due to various reasons including crew unavailability”.
It has also said it has decided to temporarily reduce the number of flights it operates “to ensure adequate connectivity across our network”.
“We acknowledge and are deeply concerned about the inconvenience this has caused to our customers. Having said that, our teams are working towards minimizing the discomfort to the customers,” it said.
Vistara was formed as a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines.
On Tuesday, it was reported that at least 15 senior first officers resigned from Vistara and joined a domestic budget carrier. The airline operates a little over 300 flights daily and has a fleet of 70 planes comprising A320-family aircraft and Boeing 787s. The pilots are protesting revised contracts following the airline’s merger with Air India.
Vistara has around 800 pilots and the senior first officers who resigned had completed their conversion training that allowed them to operate wide-body Boeing 787 planes. However, they did not get the duty for flying the 787 aircraft, the sources said.
In alignment with the merger with Air India, the airline has executed new contractual agreements for its pilots. The primary objective of these arrangements is to achieve pay equivalence with their counterparts at Air India.
Pursuant to the recent agreements, there will be a readjustment in compensation for junior co-pilots. Their monthly salaries will be reduced from Rs 2.35 lakh to Rs 1.88 lakh as the prescribed flying hours have been reduced substantially from 70 hours to 40 hours.
However, many Vistara pilots have been protesting as the fixed component of compensation has been reduced and there are more flying-linked incentives that are subject to certain conditions.
Amid flight 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. The DGCA officials are overseeing the situation to ensure compliance of the above mentioned CAR (Civil Aviation Requirements) and minimise passenger inconvenience.
