Vistara will start cancelling 25-30 flights per day in an effort to scale back operations as it tries to reduce the impact of unavailability of the crew. CEO, Vinod Kannan, however, said on the weekend that the airline will “stabilize” as more than 98% of pilots have signed a new contract.
“We hope to stabilise our operations for the rest of April 2024 by this weekend,” he said.
The carrier will operate around 300 flights in the summer schedule, and the flight cancellations are mostly done on the domestic route.
“All the affected passengers have already been re-accommodated on other flights, as applicable,” the airline had said, and added the on-time performance has improved.
With increasing domestic air passenger traffic, flight cancellations could affect the overall available capacity, thus, hike in fares on certain routes is possible.
The carrier cancelled more than 125 flights over three days from April 1.
The airline in a statement said “relevant refunds and compensation” will be given to the customers affected by delays and cancellations over the last weekend.
The airlines regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), had issued a show-cause notice to Vistara for alleged violations, particularly, during the conversion training in which pilots of narrow planes were asked to operate the wide-body aircraft.
The breach of pilot training norms happened with respect to Zero Flight Time Training (ZFTT) norms. The ZFTT refers to training in which pilots undergo a skill test and then a simulator to attain a particular rating. It has been alleged that Vistara allowed a longer gap than permitted for conducting the training after the skill test.
The conversion training for more than 10 pilots of A320 planes to operate Boeing 787 have been halted following the DGCA concerns, according to news agency PTI.
Vistara has a fleet of 70 planes, of which, 63 belong to the A320 family, 7 to Boeing 787. It has deployed larger aircraft such as B787-9 Dreamliner and A321 neo on select domestic routes to combine flights or accommodate more customers, wherever possible.
While the Delhi-based airline has blamed poor rostering for disruption on certain routes, some pilots have raised concerns regarding the implementation of uniform pay structure, which has been reduced to what the pilots of Air India are currently getting.
According to the new contract, the pilots of Vistara will get a fixed salary for 40 hours instead of 70 hours earlier. Moreover, they will get paid for extra flying hours and rewarded based on the years of experience, as mentioned in a report by Livemint.
Meanwhile, Air India pilots had written to Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran last week, supporting the concerns raised by their contemporaries at Vistara about the salary and work-life balance. They also said these “systemic” issues cut across Tata group’s aviation entities, stressing the “broader discontent” among the pilots in the conglomerate.
The domestic air passenger traffic grew 8.4% year-on-year to 15.20 crore in 2023 compared to 12.32 crore in the year ended December 2022.
Of the total domestic passenger traffic last year, IndiGo flew 9.19 crore, followed by Air India, which transported 1.47 crore flyers, while Vistara flew 1.38 crore customers. SpiceJet carried 83.90 lakh passengers, while Akasa Air flew 62 lakh flyers.
Vistara, a 51:49 joint venture of Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, has a market share of 9.9% in the domestic aviation industry, after Air India at 12.8% and IndiGo at 60.1%, as per DGCA.
Vistara’s on-time performance was recorded at 79.1% on 6 April, while Air India Express was the most punctual at 91%. IndiGo recorded an on-time performance of 79.6%, and Air India was at 73.3%.
The government said it believes that airfares are driven by market, and cannot be established or regulated. It, however, plans to set up an aviation ombudsman to address customers’ issues.
Reports suggest that the Ministry of Civil Aviation was planning to discuss the need for an ombudsman with all stakeholders in the industry.
India had deregulated the aviation sector, with tariff fixation removed in 1994 when the Air Corporations Act was repealed.
first published: April 08, 2024, 11:06 IST
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