NEW DELHI: After planes, engines and spare parts, Covid-induced supply chain constraints have now hit fabric availability too in the aviation industry.
Vistara is “experiencing limited availability of its cabin crew uniforms” due to which some of them “may be seen performing their duties in black-coloured trousers and polo t-shirts with Vistara logo instead of (the) standard aubergine uniform.” Earlier Akasa was unable to get the violet colour fabric chosen by its seats, apart from all economy Boeing 737 MAXs, due to which it currently has planes in different configurations and seat colours.
“Given our fleet expansion, we have been scaling up our cabin crew strength as well. However, due to an unforeseen issue with the supply of material, Vistara is experiencing limited availability of its cabin crew uniforms. While not an ideal measure, but with the objective of ensuring business continuity and smooth operations to the maximum extent, we have found an interim solution. In the coming days, some of our cabin crew may be seen performing their duties in black-coloured trousers and polo t-shirts with Vistara logo instead of our standard aubergine uniform,” Vistara said in a statement.
“We are actively working with our suppliers to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We would like to assure our customers that irrespective of this temporary uniform, the focus of all our cabin crew remains on delivering world-class customer service. We thank our customers for their cooperation and understanding,” the Tata Group full service airline which will soon merge with Air India said on a SM post.
The most serious impact of supply chain issues in Indian aviation has been Pratt & Whitney’s inability to supply replacement engines due to which over 60 aircraft of IndiGo and Go First were grounded for months.
Then last month Go First stopped flying, thereby leading to 11 planes of these two budget carriers on ground. Indian carriers together have 700 planes. With so many planes, and now a medium size airline, not flying, fares have skyrocketed.
While Tata carriers led by Air India and IndiGo are willing to take more planes, aircraft-makers are unavailable to step on the gas.
Boeing’s Dreamliner, for instance, keeps getting delayed so frequently that now Vistara is not sure if it will get the remaining Boeing 787s before it merges with AI. To meet this issue, IndiGo has wet leased two wide bodies from Turkish Airlines to operate between Istanbul, and Delhi and Mumbai.
