Vistara CEO, pilots, management to meet at 1 p.m. on Air India merger standoff

Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan on April 3 called an urgent meeting with all pilots as well as the top management, including the Human Resources division in an attempt to resolve the standoff over a new pay structure announced ahead of its merger with Air India

The airline has been grappling with a large number of cancellations for a few days after a section of Vistara pilots went on sick leave to protest a new salary structure announced in mid-February. While there were 10-15 cancellations daily since the announcement, these escalated over the weekend and the airline says over 100 flights were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday.

The cancellations spurred the airline into action after 40 days, which acknowledged in a press statement that it was hit by “crew unavailability” and that it had decided to reduce the number of flights to reduce passenger inconvenience temporarily.

Following the cancellations, the DGCA too cracked the whip on the airline, demanded a daily report on the number of cancellations and delays, and instructed the airline to ensure refunds and compensation for passengers.

Also Read | Eight reasons for Vistara’s massive flight cancellations

In recent weeks, discontentment has been simmering among pilots at Vistara, which is in the process of getting merged with Air India, following the new contracts wherein there are concerns that fixed pay component is getting reduced and there is more flying-linked incentive in the salary structure.

The new contracts that will bring parity between pilots of Vistara and Air India have been introduced as part of the ongoing merger process.

Vistara is a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines. Many first officers of Vistara’s A320 fleet have been reporting sick in the past few weeks and on Monday alone, around 50 flights were cancelled and many were delayed as there were not enough pilots to operate flights.

(With PTI inputs)