Vistara to Cut Daily Flights by 10% Due to Crew Shortages, Aiming for Operational Stability

In a recent announcement, Vistara, a Tata Group airline, has decided to cut down its flight operations by 10 per cent, equating to about 25-30 flights daily. This strategic move, primarily affecting the domestic network, aims at stabilizing operations amidst crew availability issues. The full-service carrier, which operates over 300 flights daily in the current summer schedule, faced significant disruptions earlier in the week due to a high number of pilots reporting sick. This led to numerous flight cancellations.

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Vistara's decision to scale back operations is intended to bring its flight operations back to levels seen at the end of February 2024. The airline emphasizes that this adjustment will provide the necessary resilience and buffer in their rosters. In an effort to minimize inconvenience for customers, Vistara has proactively cancelled flights mostly within its domestic network and well in advance. The airline assures that all affected passengers have been re-accommodated on other flights as applicable, and notes an improvement in on-time performance.

With these cancellations, there is an anticipated reduction in overall available capacity which could lead to fare increases on certain routes due to the decreased number of services. This comes at a time when domestic air passenger traffic is on the rise. Vistara's CEO, Vinod Kannan, cited a stretched roster as the primary reason for the recent flight disruptions. Additionally, concerns have been raised by some pilots regarding new contracts that entail pay revisions ahead of the airline's proposed merger with Air India.

On April 1, Vistara announced its decision to reduce operations due to crew non-availability among other operational reasons. Following this announcement, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) mandated the airline to submit a daily report on flight cancellations and delays. In response to these operational challenges, Kannan mentioned that the airline plans to review its current rostering system after discussions with pilots. He also highlighted that there has been no unusual spike in attrition rates among pilots.

Meanwhile, Vistara faces scrutiny from aviation regulator DGCA over alleged violations of pilot training norms specifically related to Zero Flight Time Training (ZFTT) norms during conversion training for pilots transitioning from narrow body planes to wide body aircraft like Boeing 787s. It has been reported that there was a longer gap than permitted between conducting the training and the skill test for more than 10 pilots transitioning from A320 family planes to operate Boeing 787 aircraft. As a result, conversion training for these pilots has been temporarily halted.

Vistara operates a fleet of 70 aircraft, including 63 from the A320 family and 7 wide-body Boeing 787s. For the ongoing summer schedule starting March 31, the airline planned over 300 daily flights. To ensure adequate connectivity across its network despite reduced operations, Vistara has deployed larger aircraft such as B787-9 Dreamliner and A321 neo on select domestic routes. This strategy allows for combining flights or accommodating more customers where possible. In this summer schedule, Vistara aims to operate 25.22 per cent more weekly flights at 2,324.

The airline—a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines—held a domestic market share of 9.9 per cent prior to these operational adjustments. As Vistara navigates through these operational challenges with strategic planning and regulatory compliance, it remains committed to maintaining service quality and minimizing passenger inconvenience.