Mumbai: A day after it was forced to cancel 26 flights, Vistara, on Thursday, cancelled another 20 flights as the company continues the process of addressing concerns raised by its pilots. According to sources and travel industry executives quoted in a PTI report, the cancellations also led to a spike in fares on some other routes. Sources quoted in the same report said that while the cancellations remained in double digits on Thursday, the situation was improving. Vistara, which operates 300 flights daily during its summer schedule, is now reportedly paring back its operations temporarily.  

In the meantime, two groups representing the pilots said that the problems being raised by Vistara pilots were not specific to them but rather indicated a host of systemic issues observed across Tata Group aviation entities.

In a detailed letter to Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran, the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPI) and the Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG) urged the group to engage in a constructive dialogue with the pilot community.

Tata Group has four airline ventures — Air India, Air India Express, AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India) and Vistara.

IPG represents Air India pilots operating the airlines' wide-body fleet while ICPA represents pilots operating the single-aisle aircraft.

Aviation regulator DGCA has asked the full-service carrier to submit a daily report on flight cancellations and delays.

On Wednesday, top management officials of Vistara held a virtual meeting with pilots and various issues, including pay revision and concerns over rostering, were discussed.

As a result of the flight cancellations, travel industry executives said fares have gone up on some routes.

Fares have gone up 10-20 per cent, depending on the routes where flights have been cancelled, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) President Jyoti Mayal said.

She also pointed out that airfares, in any case, have been on the higher side in the last few months compared to the same period last year.

A travel industry expert said airfares have gone up in the last few days and the increase is around 10-15 per cent.

The flight cancellations by Vistara also come at a time when there are capacity issues in the domestic aviation market, especially after Go First stopped flying last year, amid rising air traffic.

With inputs from PTI.