Vistara Plans More Flight Cancellations, Delays

Tata Group-owned Vistara may cancel or delay more flights on Tuesday due to crew unavailability, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Since the availability of crew is not clear, the plan is to run flights to sectors with heavy traffic on priority. These include places like Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore, as the people quoted above told NDTV Profit on the condition of anonymity.

With over 15 flights cancelled from Mumbai, more adjustments are expected during the day, these people said.

As of now, the plan for Terminal 2 of Mumbai International Airport is to update the flight status every three hours, depending on pilots and crew reporting for duty, the people said.

NDTV Profit previously reported that Vistara pilots sought sick leaves all at once due to a revised salary system the airline was trying to implement, ahead of its merger with Air India.

This structure slashed pilots' confirmed pay to 40 hours of flytime, from the current 70 hours. It also required them to show up to work for at least 15 days in order to be eligible for 40 hours of flytime pay.

Unhappy with the step, several first officers are now also applying for jobs at rival airlines like Flydubai, according to the people quoted above.

On Monday, Vistara said in a statement that it was cancelling some flights and also deploying larger planes to manage the operational issues. Along with this, the airline is also offering alternate flight arrangements or refunds to the affected customers, it said.