Didn’t Live Up To Customers’ Expectations: Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan In Open Letter

In the letter to customers, Kannan has mentioned that the airline is addressing some of the gaps on a war footing, while many changes and enhancements are in the offing

Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan said safety of passengers and the airline staff takes precedence over any other consideration, while assuring the customers that their grievances have not gone unnoticed. Image: AFP

New Delhi: Vinod Kannan, chief executive officer (CEO) of Vistara has said that the airline fell short of customers’ expectations in the past few months.

On February 16, Kannan wrote an open letter to customers promising to improve services.

In the letter to customers, he has mentioned that the airline is addressing some of the gaps on a war footing, while many changes and enhancements are in the offing. Kannan has acknowledged that the recent disruptions in services would have led to the alterations in their travel plans and the frustration over a long wait to reach out to the airline’s call centre.

“We have always wanted to make flying an experience that is not transactional, but a joyous and memorable ‘new feeling’. However, I admit that we fell short on this commitment in the past few months and did not live up to your expectations, the Vistara CEO said.

“I am aware that our website and mobile app couldn’t offer targeted solutions to some of the problems you faced. And, I also understand that your on-ground experience may not have been up to your expectations on some instances,” he said.

Safety of passengers and the airline staff takes precedence over any other consideration, Kannan said, while assuring the customers that their grievances have not gone unnoticed.

“However, the varying curbs that we have had to navigate and the constant safety concerns due to these unusual times, brought us some unique challenges in these past months, forcing us to curtail many aspects of our services, temporarily,” PTI reported quoting Kannan.

The new year brought along a sharp decline in demand right after a brief but very optimistic period, while Vistara resumed recruitment and ramp-up of resources on various fronts buoyed by optimism in late 2021, the requirements around training and occupancy meant that it was not able to scale up as desired. This, coupled with a scale back in capacity necessitated by a precipitous decline in demand, implied that the volume of enquiries and requests increased manifold, he said.

Saying that many changes and enhancements were in the works, he said, “I have taken stock of things as they stood, and I want to assure you that we are addressing some of the gaps on a war footing. Additionally, the airline has also fast-tracked initiatives across its entire IT infrastructure to make the digital experience more convenient,” Kannan added.

A Tata-SIA (Singapore Airlines) joint venture, Vistara was launched in India in 2013.