Vistara cancels February flights due to low demand, offers rescheduling to irate passengers

New Delhi: Domestic carrier Vistara announced a slew of flight cancellations in the month of February citing low demand and restrictions imposed on travel by various state governments, leaving dozens of passengers with disrupted travel schedules which it offered some compensation for.

A Vistara spokesperson on Monday informed one such angry passenger on Twitter 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," the 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.

Recently, the country's largest airline IndiGo had announced the withdrawal of 20 % 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.

Omicron has hit the Indian aviation industry hard, which was only just beginning to recover from the effects of a devastating second wave in 2021. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has extended the ban on international flights outside of flight bubbles to February 28, 2022.

India currently has a bilateral air bubble arrangement for the operation of special international passenger flights with 28 countries, including Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, the Maldives, Nigeria, Qatar, the UAE, the UK and the USA.