With Vistara facing disruptions due to non-availability of crew, the Tata-owned airline has announced to reduce 10 per cent of its capacity or 25-30 flights daily.
Vistara to cut 25-30 flights daily (Pic: X – @airvistara)
New Delhi: With Vistara announcing to reduce 10 per cent of its capacity or 25-30 flights daily to operate with the same level of flight operations as at the end of February 2024, the airfares are expected to increase in the upcoming travel season in India. The airline has announced that the cancellations are done mostly in the domestic network.
As Tata-owned Vistara has decided to curtail its operations, the summer season, in which the Indians are known to travel a lot due to summer vacations in schools or to chill in the hills, flight reductions by even a single airline could lead to an increase in airfares. Vistara’s cancellations will be mostly in the domestic network.
With rising domestic air passenger traffic, the Vistara flight cancellations would certainly reduce the overall available capacity and add to woes of the customers who could face A rise on certain routes due to lesser number of services.
Currently, Vistara has 70 planes comprising 63 aircraft from A320 family and 7 wide-body Boeing 787s.
Why Vistara decided to cancel flights
Vistara faced disruptions due to non-availability of crew as many pilots reported sick, resulting in cancellations of flights. The carrier plans to normalise operations by April and beyond and would operate over 300 flights daily in the ongoing summer schedule.
“We are carefully scaling back our operations by around 25-30 flights per day, i.e. roughly 10 per cent 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, and provide the much-needed resilience and buffer in the rosters,” Vistara said in a statement.
The Vistara pilots have raised concerns about the ‘stretched’ rosters and the new contract that will result in pay revisions ahead of the airline’s proposed merger with Air India. The Tata Group airline has around 1,000 pilots.
After Vistara announced it would reduce operations, aviation watchdog DGCA asked the airline to submit a daily report on flight cancellations and delays.