BENGALURU: Vistara flights across the country, including Bengaluru, suffered massive delays on Monday due to various reasons, including crew shortage. A Bengaluru-Ahmedabad flight was delayed by 6.5 hours, forcing many to cancel their trip. Vistara has now announced that it would be temporarily reducing some flights across the country.
Flight UK 574 was scheduled to depart from Kempegowda International Airport to Ahmedabad at 10.30 am. The flight, with a travel time of 2 hours, 10 minutes, finally departed six hours and 29 minutes later. Among the upset and irate flyers was T V Mohandas Pai, chairman, Aarin Capital Partners, who finally cancelled his trip and returned home from the airport.
Pai told TNIE, “The original timing was 10.30 am. By 10.12 am, we get an sms stating the flight has been rescheduled to 12 noon. One expects this information to be conveyed at least 45 to 50 minutes in advance. Later, around 11.35pm, information was conveyed that it would depart only by 2 pm. Though Vistara’s fare is costlier, we go by it because we believe it flies on time and we can reach on time for quick business meetings. I cancelled my trip and left home.”
Delays do happen but flyers need to be updated about the change in schedule immediately so that other plans can be made. Pai’s return flight from Ahmedabad to Bengaluru too was rescheduled from 5.45 pm to 10 pm, he added. The delay in flights was experienced across the country, and many took to X to vent their ire.
Asked about it, Vistara said in a statement, “We have had a significant number of flight cancellations and delays in the past few days due to various reasons, including crew unavailability. We acknowledge and are deeply concerned about the inconvenience this has caused our customers... our teams are working towards minimizing the discomfort to the customers. We have decided to temporarily reduce the number of flights we operate, to ensure adequate connectivity across our network...”
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