Vistara Airlines has cancelled over 100 flights in the last two days due to the pilots' protest over the revised pay structure as part of the in-process merger of the carrier with Air India.
The CEO and other top officials of Vistara, the airline undergoing a crisis due to a section of pilots reporting sick in protest against revised pay structure, held a meeting with pilots on Wednesday to discuss new contracts and rostering issues, reports citing sources said.
Vistara Airlines has cancelled over 100 flights in the last two days due to the pilots' protest over the revised pay structure as part of the in-process merger of the carrier with Air India. On Tuesday, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asked the carrier to submit a daily report on the cancellations and delays.
Amid flight cancellations due to non-availability of crew, Vistara's top officials, including the CEO, on Wednesday held a meeting with pilots where discussions were held on new contracts and rostering issues, according to sources cited in a news agency PTI report.
The sources said top officials of Vistara, including CEO Vinod Kannan, held a virtual meeting with pilots to discuss their problems. Officials of human resources among other departments attended the meeting.
There was no official statement from Vistara on the meeting with the pilots.
The above-mentioned sources said that flight operations are returning to normalcy and the number of flights cancellations has come down.
On issues related to rostering and stretched working hours, the airline officials have assured the pilots that they will be sorted out by May, the sources said, adding that the current situation was mainly due to higher utilisation of the available pool of pilots.
Vistara, a Tata Group airline, cancelled around 26 flights on Wednesday, the sources in the know said. With a section of pilots reporting sick to protest against the revised pay structure, Vistara has cancelled over 100 flights in the last two days.
Aviation watchdog DGCA on Tuesday, April 2, asked Vistara to submit a daily report on flight cancellations and delays.
The civil aviation ministry was also monitoring the situation of flight cancellations at Vistara, which saw resignations of at least 15 senior first officers in the recent past.
The impact of flight cancellations and delays reflected on Vistara's On Time Performance (OTP) score as it touched 51.4 per cent on April 1, the lowest among the scheduled airlines, as per the latest data from the civil aviation ministry.
The discontentment among pilots of Vistara is linked to the carrier's in-process merger with Air India. The new contracts as part of the merger sparked concerns that fixed pay component is getting reduced and there is more flying-linked incentive in the salary structure.
Vistara is a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines.
The new contracts that will bring parity between pilots of Vistara and Air India have been introduced as part of the ongoing merger process.
Vistara, a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, has around 1,000 pilots, including about 200 who are at various stages of training, as per a PTI report.
In the summer schedule that started from March 31, the airline is to operate a little over 300 flights daily.
In a statement on Monday, April 1, Vistara said it had a significant number of flight cancellations and delays in the past few days due to various reasons, including crew unavailability.
"We have decided to temporarily reduce the number of flights we operate, to ensure adequate connectivity across our network," the airline said, apologising for the disruptions.
The airline also deployed larger aircraft like B787-9 Dreamliner and A321 neo on select domestic routes to combine flights or accommodate more customers, wherever possible.