Vistara faces several cancellations after pilots report “sick”

At least 10 Vistara flights out of Delhi and Mumbai alone were delayed on March 6, a day after the airline faced 12 cancellations from the two airports as a significant number of pilots have been reporting “sick.” 

Several angry passengers posted about their flight delays on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“We are UK 801 passengers and waiting for last 3 hours…the flight was to depart at 9 am and still no sign of any movement! Can we know,” wrote one Madhumita Guha about her flight from Delhi to Bengaluru.

“Your flight UK 501 is delayed. Ground staff have no clue about the departure time. Can someone help to get clarity?? People have business to attend!!,” wrote another X user, Pranjal Rai, about his flight from Delhi to Ahmedabad.

Sources say that an average of 10 to 15 flight cancellations have been taking place at Vistara for the past two weeks after a significant number of first officers started reporting sick after a mid-February announcement that Air India’s new salary structure would also be implemented for them. This would cut their minimum assured hours of flying from 70 hours to 40 hours.

On March 5, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore gave its conditional approval for Vistara’s merger with Air India, which is expected to conclude by mid-2025.

The delays on March 6 came a day after there were as many as 12 cancellations out of Delhi and Mumbai airports alone because of pilot shortage. The airline was already grappling with crew shortage, which is now aggravated because of sick leave by some First Officers to protest against a pay cut of up to ₹80,000 to ₹1.40 lakh, it is reliably learnt.

Some pilots may also be calling in sick because they have unutilised leaves which they want to claim before the financial year comes to a close as the airline doesn’t have a leave encashment policy.

Sources also say that the DGCA has made certain observations about violations of pilot duty norms by the airline, which is an indication that the airline may be overworking its cockpit crew.

The airline industry has already warned of cancellations from June onwards if the DGCA did not postpone the implementation of new pilot duty norms that provide more rest to the cockpit crew and reduced night flying on the grounds that this will worsen existing levels of pilot shortage in airlines.