Vistara reduces flights by 10% to ease pressure on pilots

Vistara on Sunday announced that the airline will be reducing the flight operation by 10% which is equivalent to about 25, 30 flights per day to ease the pressure on pilots. This comes as Vistara is hit by flight delays and cancellation for the past few days.

"This will take us back to the same level of flight operations as at the end of February 2024, and provide the much-needed resilience and buffer in the rosters,” an airline spokesperson said in a statement. "We are carefully scaling back our operations by around 25-30 flights per day, i.e. roughly 10% of the capacity we were operating".

"All the affected passengers have already been re-accommodated on other flights, as applicable," it added.

Vistara reduces flights

While underlining that the airline has improved its on-time performance over the last few days, Vistara's spokesperson has stated that the scaling back will bring operations back to the level seen at the end of February 2024, providing necessary resilience and roster flexibility.

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

The airline had initially planned to operate over 300 flights daily in the summer schedule commencing March 31. The reduction will primarily affect the domestic network and the airline has assured that affected passengers have been re-accommodated on alternative flights as necessary, with reported improvements in on-time performance.

The announcement comes a day after the crisis-hit airline's CEO said that 98% of its pilots have signed the new contracts with the revised salary structure. The disruptions had occured after which several of pilots had called in sick protesting the new salary structure.