Vistara To Get Pilots From Air India; Will It End The Current Crisis?

New Delhi:  Vistara will source pilots from Air India to overcome its management crisis. First officers from Air India will be sent to Vistara on deputation. However, the pilot exchange may take more than a month as these first officers will have to undergo compulsory training of nearly 40 days according to rules laid down by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. This includes a 21-day ground training with simulator and line training, NDTV Profit reported.

Both Vistara and Air India are part of the Tata Group. Ironically, Air India is already short of first officers. Most Air India operations are being operated with One-Way Command, which means two pilots are handling cockpit operations due to a shortage of co-pilots, the report added quoting sources.

Earlier, Vistara announced that it is cutting back on flights by 25-30 daily departures, or roughly 10 per cent of its capacity with an aim to return to pre-April flight levels and create a buffer in pilot schedules following recent disruptions.

Over 150 Vistara flights have been cancelled since April 1 due to pilot dissatisfaction with rosters and a new salary structure.

Vistara yesterday said it is scaling back operations by 25-30 flights per day to ease the pressure on pilots. The airline underlined that it had improved its on-time performance over the past few days after a series of cancellations and delays. Pilots at Vistara, which is in the process of a merger with Air India, are not happy after they were given new contracts in which the fixed pay component has been reduced and there is more flying-linked incentive in the salary structure.

Post a comment“We are carefully scaling back our operations by around 25-30 flights per day, i.e. roughly 10% of the capacity we were operating,” Vistara’s spokesperson said in a statement yesterday. “This will take us back to the same level of flight operations as at the end of February 2024, and provide the much-needed resilience and buffer in the rosters.”