Vistara pilot shortage: More flights cancelled

The leading commercial carrier Vistara, plagued by “various reasons including crew unavailability”, could cancel as many as 60 to 70 flights on Tuesday. The airline has already cancelled around 50 flights out of major cities over the past one day, including 15 from Mumbai, 12 from Delhi and 11 from Bengaluru.

“We have had a significant number of flight cancellations and delays in the past few days due to various reasons including crew unavailability. We acknowledge and are deeply concerned about the inconvenience this has caused to our customers. Having said that, our teams are working towards minimising the discomfort to the customers,” said a Vistara spokesperson.

The spokesperson further said that the airline has decided to cut down on the number of flights for now, besides “offering alternate flight options or refunds to affected customer, as applicable”.

Customers vent on social media

The current crisis comes in the wake of the airline’s ongoing woes that have seen more than 100 flights being cancelled or delayed over the past week. The airline said steps were being taken to stabilise the situation.

Issuing an apology to customers, the spokesperson added: “We have decided to temporarily reduce the number of flights we operate, to ensure adequate connectivity across our network. We have also deployed larger aircraft like our B787-9 Dreamliner and A321neo on select domestic routes to combine flights or accommodate more number of customers, wherever possible.”

“We understand that these disruptions have caused immense discomfort to our customers, and sincerely apologise to them for the same. We are working towards stabilising the situation and will resume operating our regular capacity very soon,” the statement issued by Vistara further said.

According to sources in the aviation industry, the crisis deepened because a large number of pilots at Vistara have declined reporting for work owing to long duty hours demanded from them.

Meanwhile, several inconvenienced passengers expressed ire and concern on social media and complained to regulating authorities over the issue.