Just as the peak travel season of summer is about to hit its stride, air travel within India is facing a jolt due to a recent announcement by Vistara. The airline declared a scale-back in its daily operations that amounts to a reduction of 25-30 flights, trimming its operating capacity by nearly 10 percent. This contraction in supply is both in response to internal disruptions and as a strategic step to bolster the firm’s operational resilience. However, it has led to an unintended consequence: a sharp increase in airfares, with certain routes experiencing a 20-25 percent fare hike.
The aviation sector has been navigating through turbulent airs, but Vistara’s operational downscale has delivered an additional shockwave. As prices soar on popular domestic routes such as Delhi-Goa, Delhi-Kochi, Delhi-Jammu, and Delhi-Srinagar, passengers are left grappling with the blow to their travel budgets.
The cause of the fluctuations can be traced back to heightening discontent within Vistara’s pilot ranks. The unease is reportedly due to disagreements regarding newly proposed pay structures, concerns over the approaching merger with Air India, and a scheduling system perceived to overextend the pilots. Last week’s culmination of these issues led several pilots to call in sick, causing widespread flight cancellations and significant delays.
Recognizing the necessity to stabilize operations, Vistara announced cutbacks over the weekend, strategically chosen to introduce a “much-needed resilience and buffer” in its crew rosters, especially within its domestic network. Airfares, which were already riding high due to a pre-existing demand-supply mismatch, felt the added weight of the airline’s decision.
Bharatt Malik, Senior Vice President of Air and Hotel Business at Yatra Online, acknowledged the marked fare escalation. “We have observed a significant surge in fares, with prices skyrocketing by approximately 20-25 percent across key routes where the airline has a firm presence,” Malik pointed out.
During the pinnacle of Vistara’s flight disruptions last week, it was reported that airfares for same-day and day-ahead bookings skyrocketed by over 30 percent on the most severely affected routes. The pinch was particularly felt by passengers scrambling to secure last-minute alternative flights.
The capacity conundrum is an industry-wide issue, not confined to the hardships of Vistara alone. With over 70 aircraft from IndiGo and 50 from Go First out of service due to technical and financial problems respectively, the Indian aviation sector is visibly strained. An executive from another travel agency highlighted that even as Vistara’s flight cancellations may be a transient problem, expected to last only a few months, any disruption amplifies the pressure on an already capacity-bounded ecosystem, especially when juxtaposed with a relentless surge in travel demand post-pandemic.
While Vistara has remained non-committal on the exact duration of the reduced flight output, indications suggest it will persist at least until the end of April. Consequently, passengers navigating the affected travel corridors can anticipate elevated fares during this interim.
In a statement released on Sunday, Vistara maintained an optimistic front, “We are carefully scaling back our operations by around 25-30 flights per day, that is about 10% of our operating capacity. This brings us to the operational levels we maintained at the close of February 2024, ensuring much-needed resilience and buffer in the rosters… Our on-time performance has shown improvement in recent days, and we expect a stable operational landscape for the rest of the month and onward.”
Historically, Vistara has been a strong contender in the growth charts of Indian carriers. For the 2024 summer schedule that spans from March 31 to October 26, the airline boasted 2,324 weekly domestic departures, marking a 25.2 percent increase over the previous summer and a 22.2 percent rise compared to the preceding winter schedule. Despite Vistara’s temporary rollback, the overall summer schedule reflects a 6 percent year-over-year uptick in domestic departures, underscoring the vibrancy and resilience of India’s domestic air travel despite the current challenges.
