Vistara cancels several flights for February: Report

Vistara airline had cancelled several flights for the month of February while many more were rescheduled due to low demand, sources in aviation disclosed on Sunday.

The cancellation and rescheduling of flights have led to several complaints from affected passengers.

Taking to Twitter, a passenger also raised concern over the unavailability of Vistara's customer care.

"Dear Vistara airlines You have cancelled a ticket from New Delhi to Bhubaneswar on February 5. Your customer care number is a cheap gimmick I think. No one responds and It's been busy since 48 hours. Please refund the full amount ASAP," Shibashis Prusti, a scientist of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) tweeted.

Furnishing a reply on the same, Vistara Spokesperson on Monday informed that they are offering a waiver of change fee for one-time rescheduling on all direct bookings with travel until March 31.

"After a sharp decline in demand for air travel, due to the surge in Covid-19 numbers and restrictions imposed by various state governments, we are observing a marginal increase in traffic in February compared to the previous month," Vistara Spokesperson said.

"However, in view of volatility, we continue to closely monitor the situation and adjust capacity to demand. With the objective of minimising inconvenience to customers, we're offering a waiver of change fee for one-time rescheduling on all direct bookings with travel until 31 March," they added.

Vistara also said that they will be assisting the impacted customers with rescheduling, refunds etc., as applicable.

Due to surge in Covid Omicron cases, the demand for air travel was slashed, forcing airlines to rework their domestic schedules - and even cancel flights.

Recently, the country's largest airline IndiGo had announced the withdrawal of 20 per cent of its scheduled flights due to low demand. Full-service carrier Vistara had said it is adjusting capacity with changing demand, and, an Air India official said that some flights on routes with multiple daily services are being merged based on load factor.