Vistara sees significant flight cancellations; to cut operations due to non-availability of pilots
Mumbai, Apr 1: Vistara will temporarily reduce flight operations due to non-availability of pilots as many first officers have been reporting sick to protest against pay revision, a development that forced the full-service carrier to cancel up to 50 flights on Monday, according to sources.
The sources in the know said that more flights are expected to be cancelled on Tuesday and the number could go up to 70.
A Vistara spokesperson said the airline had a significant number of flight cancellations and delays in the past few days due to various reasons, including crew unavailability.
"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.
The airline apologised for the disruptions but did not provide details on the number of flight cancellations.
The spokesperson also said efforts are being made to stabilise the situation and that operations at regular capacity will resume very soon.
The sources said Vistara has been facing pilot issues since the revision in monthly emoluments for first officers of its A320 fleet following signing of new contracts.
The spokesperson said teams are working towards minimising the discomfort to the customers. We have decided to temporarily reduce the number of flights we operate, to ensure adequate connectivity across our network.
Further, the airline has deployed larger aircraft like B787-9 Dreamliner and A321neo on select domestic routes to combine flights or accommodate more number of customers, wherever possible.
One of the sources said first officers reporting sick have forced the airline to cancel flights as their salaries have been reduced significantly.
The source claimed that some components of the salary have been reduced while incentives linked to flying hours have been raised.
Details about the number of daily flights operated by Vistara could not be immediately ascertained.
In the ongoing summer schedule, Vistara will be operating 25.22 per cent more weekly flights at 2,324.
The spokesperson also said alternate flight options or refunds to affected customers are being offered and apologised for the disruptions.
"We are working towards stabilising the situation and will resume operating our regular capacity very soon," the spokesperson added.
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Malegaon blast: Special court junks former ATS officer's claim of order to arrest Mohan Bhagwat
Mumbai (PTI): A special court here in its judgment, acquitting seven persons in the September 2008 Malegaon blast case, rejected the claims made by a former Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) official that he had been ordered to arrest RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in the case.
Special NIA Judge A K Lahoti, in his over 1000-page judgment, said it did not find any force in the contentions raised by the advocate for accused Sudhakar Dwivedi, who had relied on the claims made by Mehboob Mujawar, a former ATS officer.
The observations fell flat on the face of Mujawar, who had reiterated on Thursday that he had been asked to apprehend Bhagwat and the objective behind the same was to establish that there was "saffron terror".
Mujawar had at the time also claimed that senior ATS officers had ordered him to arrest Bhagwat, but he had refused to obey such illegal orders as he did not find any role of Bhagwat in the alleged offence.
The court, in its order, rejected the defence lawyer's contention based on a statement made by ACP Mohan Kulkarni, the then chief investigating officer, that Mujawar was never asked to arrest any member of RSS and was only sent out to trace the two absconding accused, Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange.
