“Worst is behind us,” says Vistara CEO as pilot woes slashed capacity; time to be customer friendly now

The chief executive told Tata-owned Vistara’s staff that the “worst is behind us” and operations have already stabilised. The airline was forced to temporarily chop capacity by 10 per cent or 25-30 flights daily due to pilot woes and the crisis has also been blamed for playing a role in hiking airfares in recent days.

Kannan said it has been a “learning experience” while acknowledging that things should have been planned better, PTI reported. The official said the new financial year started on a challenging note as Vistara airline faced severe operational disruption from March 31 to April 2.

Also Read: What caused the Vistara crisis?

“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… I assure you that the worst is behind us, and we have already stabilised our operations, with our on-time performance (OTP) increasing to 89 per cent on 9 April 2024 (second highest among all Indian airlines),” he said in a message to the staff.

The full-service carrier has around 6,500 people, including about 1,000 pilots. Following the recent issues, the airline’s top bosses had an online meeting with the pilots. One reason for the problems was that some pilots called in sick to show their disagreement with the new contract, which includes changes to pay. Earlier this month, PTI reported that at least 15 senior first officers had resigned from the airline, according to sources. The airline has approximately 800 pilots, and those who resigned had finished their conversion training to fly wide-body Boeing 787 planes. However, they were not assigned duties to operate the 787 aircraft, as per the sources.

Kannan said there many reasons for the disruptions, including ATC delays, bird hits, and maintenance activities early last month.

“We were stretched in our pilot rosters and there was not enough resilience to withstand injects that we would otherwise have weathered. We could and should have planned better, and this has been a learning experience for us which we will review thoroughly,” the Vistara chief executive added.

Most of the cancellations were in the domestic network and the carrier is working on plans for May and beyond.

“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.

“… I trust each of you to continue to put in all efforts to ensure that we do not let our brand, and our customer, down,” Kannan said.

He said that as Vistara moves past this tough time, focusing on being a customer-friendly airline will make the airline stronger again. The airline has also contacted customers who were affected by the flight cancellations and delays during this time.

Also Read: Vistara: Why flyers face turbulence when aviation sector is growing

“We have provided the necessary compensation as per the regulatory mandate, and have also offered additional service recovery vouchers for passengers whose flights were significantly delayed,” the Vistara chief said.

The airline has a fleet of 70 planes, comprising A320-family aircraft and Boeing 787s, and plans to run over 300 flights every day during the current summer schedule.

“Dealing with disappointed customers is never easy but amidst all the chaos, we have received feedback on how some of you went beyond the call of duty to assist our customers to the extent possible,” Kannan said and expressed gratitude to the pilots for cooperating and stepping up to support operations.

(with PTI inputs)