Vistara hopes to stabilise April ops by this weekend, CEO Vinod Kannan says over 98% pilots signed new contract

The carrier faced significant disruption in operation earlier this week due to the non-availability of crew and many flights were cancelled. Vistara citied “various operational reasons” and “high utilisation of resources” as a cause of the cancellations and delays. 

In a statement, Vinod Kannan said the situation has already improved with its on-time performance improving for the last three days. “We hope to stabilise our operations for the rest of April 2024 by this weekend.” 

Referring to the new contract for pilots, the CEO of the airline with 1,000 pilots, said “over 98 per cent of pilots have signed the new contract”, however some pilots have some concerns and queries regarding the contract. 

Kannan said the airline is engaging with the pilots to clarify and resolve their concerns. 

A section of pilots have raised concerns about the new contract that will result in pay revision, PTI had reported earlier citing sources.

A significant number of Vistara pilots had taken sick leave following the announcement of new salary rules, which also coincided with the airline’s merger with Air India. 

The pilot shortage issue stemmed from pay cuts implemented after new flying hours regulations came into effect recently.

According to Kannan, the airline is addressing the current situation on a war footing and continuing to hire more pilots.

The airline is also carefully scaling back operations slightly to provide the much-needed resilience, and a buffer in the rosters, he noted.

On Tuesday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asked Vistara to submit daily reports about flight operations and to follow the Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR).

Vistara said that it has temporarily reduced the number of flights and has deployed larger aircraft on select domestic routes to accommodate more customers, wherever possible. 

The airline also said it will offer relevant refunds and compensation to all the customers affected by the delays and cancellations over the last weekend.

(With agency inputs)

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Published: 06 Apr 2024, 10:12 PM IST