Vistara crisis: CEO Vinod Kannan assures better rostering of pilots amid flight disruptions

Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan and senior members of his management team held a virtual town hall with striking pilots on Wednesday. During the meet, Vistara CEO acknowledged the poor crew roster and assured that by May the concerns would be addressed.

"It was a short meeting of about 20 minutes. The airline showed a poor planning for redundancies, especially for the month of March, and this left the network in a chaos after a large number of unplanned sick leaves were reported," a person aware of the matter told Mint.

Hours after the meet NDTV reported that the airline expects to resume normal flight operations by the weekend. However, as per Mint, the airline might have to curtail its network until May to gradually stabilise the operation.

Mass sick leave by pilots

Over the past 2 days, Vistara has cancelled over 100 flights as disgruntled pilots have called in sick en masse.

Also Read: Vistara flight cancellations: Aviation ministry monitoring situation; asks for detailed report

The large number of unplanned sick leaves has made delegating the workload difficult as there were just not enough pilots to back up and the existing lot were already stretched to their limits.

Disgruntled pilots

Vistara pilots are disgruntled over the new salary structure proposed after Vistara's merger with Air India. Vistara is being merged with Air India, and the Tata Group that owns the two carriers is seeking to implement a uniform pay structure. The uniform pay structure effectively reduces the salaries of Vistara pilots by bringing them at par with Air India.

Currently Vistara pilots get a fixed salary for 70 hours. Under the new pay structure that's already followed at Air India, the pilots of Vistara get a fixed salary for 40 hours. Now, the pilots also receive payment in lieu of extra flying hours and rewards will also be given based on the years of service with the airline.

"The airline plans to rejig the network for the month of May, and this is likely to curtail the network as well, as the airline plans a gradual return to normalcy," another person told Mint.

Meanwhile, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has asked the airline to submit a detailed report outlining the measures being taken to resolve the situation. Aviation watchdog DGCA has also asked Vistara to submit a daily report on flight cancellations as well as delays, and is monitoring the situation to ensure minimum inconvenience to passengers.