Vistara Crisis
Vistara has announced a reduction of 10 per cent of its flights until May 24, as confirmed by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vinod Kannan on Thursday. Vistara faced significant operational challenges from March 31 to April 4, resulting in the cancellation of over 150 flights. Allegedly, the disruptions stemmed from pilots taking sudden sick leave, expressing dissatisfaction with the roster, and a new salary structure. The airline, which normally operates about 320 flights daily, has faced a challenging start to the new financial year.
What The CEO Says
In a communication to employees, Kannan acknowledged the difficulties faced, saying, “It has been a challenging start to the new financial year. As you are no doubt aware, we faced significant operational disruption from March 31 to April 2. The anxiety and frustration felt by our customers was matched in even measure to the pain that all of us felt in seeing our much-loved brand drawing negative commentary from various quarters.”
Kannan expressed optimism saying that the worst is behind the airline, noting an increase in on-time performance to 89 per cent on April 9. He attributed the disruptions to various factors such as Air Traffic Control (ATC) delays, bird hits, and maintenance activities in the previous month.
Scaling Back Operations
Expressing gratitude to pilots and customer-facing teams for their cooperation and professionalism, Kannan mentioned plans to scale back operations by 25-30 flights per day, primarily on the domestic network, aiming to minimise inconvenience to customers.
Vistara has assured passengers affected by flight cancellations of necessary compensation as per regulatory requirements. Additionally, the airline is offering service recovery vouchers for passengers experiencing significant delays.
Kannan said, “While the events of the last week may seem like a setback, the hallmark of our organisation has always been that we have bounced back from tough situations, and emerged stronger.” The airline has also introduced a new salary structure for pilots, offering a fixed salary for 40 hours of flying time instead of the current 70 hours. Pilots will receive compensation for extra flying hours and additional rewards based on their years of service with the airline.
This restructuring comes as Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, is in the process of merging with Air India, wholly owned by Tata Group. Earlier this month, two Air India pilot unions voiced support for Vistara pilots amid their grievances, describing their own situation as akin to “bonded labourers.”
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