Vistara Faces Temporary Flight Reductions Due To Crew Shortage, Up To 70 Flights May Be Cancelled On Tuesday: Report

Vistara temporarily reduces flights due to pilot shortage, resulting in flight cancellations. The airline acknowledges crew unavailability as one of the reasons for the cancellations.

Vistara, the full-service carrier, is set to temporarily reduce its flight operations due to a shortage of pilots, which reportedly resulted in approximately 50 flight cancellations on Monday. According to news agency PTI, sources familiar with the matter suggest that the number of cancellations could escalate to up to 70 on Tuesday. The airline has been dealing with a shortage of first officers for its A320 fleet, who have been reporting sick over the past few weeks in protest against changes in their emoluments due to new contracts, PTI reported.

A spokesperson for Vistara acknowledged the challenges faced by the airline stating that a significant number of flight cancellations and delays in the past few days were caused by various reasons, including crew unavailability. In response to the situation, "We have decided to temporarily reduce the number of flights we operate to ensure adequate connectivity across our network," the spokesperson said in a statement, according to PTI's report. 

Vistara Expands Services in Bengaluru-Thiruvananthapuram Sector

It is unclear whether the reported cancellations would affect Vistara's two new daily services in the Thiruvananthapuram-Bengaluru sector which were scheduled to begin from Monday. Notably, IndiGo and Air India Express currently operate a total of eight services daily on this route. With the addition of Vistara's services, the total number of daily flights will increase to 10, according to a statement from the Thiruvananthapuram international airport.

The first flight, UK 524, will depart from Thiruvananthapuram at 05:55 AM and arrive in Bengaluru at 07:15 AM. It will then depart from Bengaluru at 10:40 PM and return to Thiruvananthapuram at 11:40 PM, PTI reported. The second flight, UK 525, is scheduled to depart from Bengaluru at 08:15 AM, reaching Thiruvananthapuram at 09:30 AM, and returning to Bengaluru at 10:10 AM, with an arrival time of 11:20 AM, it stated.

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