Tata Group airline Vistara issued a statement that they are cutting 10 per cent of its capacity or 25-30 daily flights on a daily basis and most of the cancellations are in the domestic network. The reason behind this cited is non-availability of crew members, PTI reported.
Vistara usually has over 300 flights each day during summer, but many pilots got sick recently, which caused disruptions in day to day functioning of the airline. They said that they’re lessening flights to the same level they were at in February 2024 to help manage their schedules better.
The airline is canceling flights in advance to avoid causing chaos for passengers. The passengers who are affected by the move have been allotted tickets in other flights. Vistara thinks things will be more stable by April and in future.
Ticket price to rise?
The cancellations of the tickets mean there will be fewer flights available, which might make ticket prices soar up on some routes.
The CEO of Vistara Vinod Kannan said that the flight problems happened because the pilots’ schedules were too tight. Some pilots are also worried about changes to their pay before Vistara merges with Air India as reported by PTI.
Vistara has about 1,000 pilots out of 6,500 employees in total. They announced on April 1 that they would be cutting back on flights because they didn’t have enough staff and for other reasons.
Why so many flight delays and cancellations?
The aviation
Vistara has 70 planes, including some big ones like Boeing 787s. They’re reducing the number of flights for now but are trying to keep up with demand by using bigger planes on certain routes.
In the summer season, Vistara will be running about 25% more flights each week than before. The airline is a partnership between Tata and Singapore Airlines and has its presence of nearly 10% in the domestic flight market