New Delhi : At least 38 Vistara flights originating from key cities were cancelled this morning as the airline reeled under non-availability of pilots. As many as 15 flights taking off from Mumbai, 12 from Delhi and 11 from Bengaluru were among those cancelled.
This comes after more than 50 Vistara flights were cancelled yesterday and about 160 delayed. Speaking to NDTV, passengers had yesterday complained of poor communication and hours-long wait at the airport and slammed the airline for harassing passengers.
Vistara said in a statement yesterday that they have faced 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 minimizing the discomfort to the customers,” it said.
The ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) sought a detailed report from Vistara regarding flight cancellations and major delays as the airline cancelled or delayed over 100 flights in the past week, news agency ANI reported citing an official in the know. Vistara may cancel around 60 flights on Tuesday after the airline cancelled approximately 50 flights on Monday. The number could even go up to 70, news agency PTI reported citing people in the know. The airline attributed flight disruptions to a shortage of pilots as it announced measures to alleviate the situation. These include reduction in flight operations and utilization of wide-body aircraft on domestic routes, it said.
Vistara said that it was forced to cut a number of flights as it was dealing with a shortage of pilots and crew as a company spokesperson said in a statement, “We have had a significant number of flight cancellations and delays in the past few days due to various reasons including crew unavailability.”
The spokesperson also said that efforts are being made to stabilise the situation and that operations at regular capacity will resume soon.
Teams are working towards minimising the discomfort to the customers, the spokesperson added.
“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. Furthermore, we are offering alternate flight options or refunds to affected customers, as applicable. Once again, we understand that these disruptions have caused immense discomfort to our customers, and sincerely apologise to them for the same. We are working towards stabilizing the situation and will resume operating our regular capacity very soon,” the spokesperson said.
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