The missing piece in Vistara’s US flight plan

A senior Vistara official said the carrier will have to wait for additional Dreamliners to be able to resume US operations as its existing two 787 aircraft are deployed in other international and domestic regions.

“We have got approval for US flights. But we have to see when we can get the third plane, and only then can we do a more comprehensive kind of expansion plan,” said Vinod Kannan, chief commercial officer of Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines. Enterprise.

“Currently, London, Tokyo, Frankfurt flights, and the occasional domestic and charter aircraft (Boeing 787) are using the time,” Kannan said.

Vistara has a firm order for six Dreamliners, with four more options. It is the only wide-body aircraft in the airline’s fleet capable of flying directly to long-haul destinations such as the US.

Vistara has a fleet of 48 aircraft – 37 Airbus A320s; three Airbus A321neo; six Boeing 737-800NG; and two Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.

Deliveries of the Dreamliners will be halted until at least the end of October as Boeing has been unable to persuade air safety regulators to approve its proposal to inspect the aircraft, wall street journal Reported on 6 September.

The FAA said on July 12 that some undelivered Boeing 787s have a new manufacturing quality issue that the company needs to fix before shipment.

“We have worked with the FAA on this issue in hundreds of hours of meetings and work sessions and will continue to do so,” Boeing said in a statement Tuesday.

A senior industry official said on the condition of anonymity, launching flights to markets like the US, which Air India and some US carriers currently serve, will help Vistara to keep a good product at a competitive price and gain market share. There is an opportunity to gain.

“Prolonged delays in delivery of the Boeing 787, however, may prompt the airline to consider leasing other wide-body aircraft,” the person said.

Meanwhile, Vistara is exploring opportunities to connect Tier-II and III cities and towns with major metros.

“We have seen demand coming from metro cities in Tier-II and III cities and cities like Delhi-Ranchi, Delhi-Raipur, Bangalore-Guwahati, Bangalore-Bagdogra,” Kannan said. There are fewer operational flights to such airports.

“At the end of the day, we also want to create as much opportunity as possible, whether it is feeding our international flights from smaller cities through metros or feeding traffic to our international airline partners,” he said.

Vistara recently resumed flights to Dubai, Sharjah and Male, as Covid-related restrictions were eased in those areas.

“Our priority will be to go back to the cities where we used to work like Singapore, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Colombo etc.,” he said.

As things stand, India has banned scheduled international flights until at least 30 September. Dedicated cargo flights and flights continue to operate under bilateral air bubble treaties with 28 countries.