About 10 days after Vistara witnessed flight cancellations and delays over pilot shortage, its CEO Vinod Kannan on Thursday told the staff that the "worst is behind us".
The full-service carrier temporarily scaled back 10 per cent of its flights daily after pilots reported sick over salary revision and complained of “fatigue” after reportedly flying beyond stipulated hours. The airline earlier revealed that most of the cancellations were in the domestic network.
Acknowledging that it was a "learning experience", he told the staff, "We were stretched in our pilot rosters and there was not enough resilience to withstand injects that we would otherwise have weathered. We could and should have planned better, and this has been a learning experience for us which we will review thoroughly.”
"The anxiety and frustration felt by our customers was matched in even measure to the pain that all of us felt in seeing our much-loved brand drawing negative commentary from various quarters... I assure you that the worst is behind us, and we have already stabilised our operations, with our on-time performance (OTP) increasing to 89 per cent on 9 April 2024 (second highest among all Indian airlines),” he added.
Following flight disruptions, the Vistara management had held a virtual meeting with the pilots to address their concerns and promised to revise the roster in order ensure that they are not exhausted.
"While the events of the last week may seem like a setback, the hallmark of our organisation has always been that we have bounced back from tough situations and emerged stronger... I trust each of you to continue to put in all efforts to ensure that we do not let our brand, and our customer, down," Kannan said.
The Vistara CEO also reached out to its worried customers impacted by the disruptions, saying "We have provided the necessary compensation as per the regulatory mandate, and have also offered additional service recovery vouchers for passengers whose flights were significantly delayed.”
