Vistara cancels flights on Thu; efforts continue to address pilots' issues

Vistara continued to cancel flights on Thursday as the Tata Group works to address pilot issues, while fares spiked in some routes due to cancellations, according to sources and travel industry executives.

A day after Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan apologised to pilots about the issues and assured them of taking steps to resolve them, the airline saw cancellations of around 20 flights.

The number of flight cancellations was in the double digits on Thursday but less than 26 cancellations were seen on Wednesday and the situation is improving, the sources said.

Vistara, which is to operate more than 300 flights daily in the ongoing summer schedule, has decided to temporarily scale back operations.

Meanwhile, two pilots' groupings on Thursday said the problems raised by Vistara pilots are not isolated but rather indicative of systemic issues across Tata Group aviation entities.

In a detailed letter to Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran, the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPI) and the Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG) urged the group to engage in a constructive dialogue with the pilot community.

Tata Group has four airline ventures -- Air India, Air India Express, AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India) and Vistara.

IPG represents Air India pilots operating the airlines' wide-body fleet while ICPA represents pilots operating the single-aisle aircraft.

Aviation regulator DGCA has asked the full-service carrier to submit a daily report on flight cancellations and delays.

On Wednesday, top management officials of Vistara held a virtual meeting with pilots and various issues, including pay revision and concerns over rostering, were discussed.

As a result of the flight cancellations, travel industry executives said fares have gone up on some routes.

Fares have gone up 10-20 per cent, depending on the routes where flights have been cancelled, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) President Jyoti Mayal said.

She also pointed out that airfares, in any case, have been on the higher side in the last few months compared to the same period last year.

A travel industry expert said airfares have definitely gone up in the last few days and the increase is around 10-15 per cent.

The flight cancellations by Vistara also come at a time when there are capacity issues in the domestic aviation market, especially after Go First stopped flying last year, amid rising air traffic.