“We acknowledge the inconvenience caused to our customers and sincerely apologise to them for the same. We are addressing this on a war footing. Hence, we are continuing to hire more pilots and are also carefully scaling back our operations slightly to provide the much-needed resilience, and a buffer in the rosters,” he added, as per news agency ANI.
“We have also deployed larger aircraft like our B787-9 Dreamliner and A321neo aircraft on select domestic routes to accommodate more customers, wherever possible. Furthermore, we are reaching out to all customers affected by the delays and cancellations over the last weekend, to offer relevant refunds and compensation,” the CEO said.
Notably, on April 2, at least 39 flights were cancelled by Vistara airlines. Later, it was reported that the airlines cancelled close to 50 flights owing to crew and pilot unavailability. Many pilots and crew reported being sick, causing delays and cancellations of flights. As the crisis deepened, the Centre stepped in as it asked the airlines to explain the reason behind mass cancellation of flights.
These cancellations come amidst concerns that pilots flagged over pay cuts made by the company. The new and revised salary structures being operated by the company might be the reason why pilots and crew are unhappy with the company, and have started calling in sick in recent months.
Addressing the concern around this, Vinod Kannan, said, “With reference to concerns being raised regarding the new pay structure of our pilots, we would like to clarify that over 98% of pilots have signed the new contract.”
” Having said that, we are aware that some pilots have some concerns and queries regarding the contract. We are engaging with them to clarify and resolve the same. However, this has not caused any visible spike in attrition among pilots,” he added.
