Vistara Airline, a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore International Airlines, has inducted India’s first long range Airbus A321LR aircraft. Full-service carrier Vistara continues to expand its fleet and expects to have a total of 70 aircraft by mid-2024, its chief Vinod Kannan said recently. The total of 70 aircraft will also include 10 Airbus A321 and 53 A320neos for domestic routes and 7 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner wide body aircraft to serve international markets. Of the 53 A320 Neos, 10 aircraft will be all economy class and the rest will have three classes. Currently, the airline has a fleet of 53 aircraft.
“We will continue to expand… and international routes will be added,” Kannan said. “The percentage of capacity deployed internationally has gone up. We have 25-30 per cent deployment internationally… This is very positive and a game changer for us,” Kannan told a briefing.
Excited to welcome India’s first A321LR as it joins our fleet today! The aircraft offers extended range and is capable of flying up to 4,000 nm. So, get ready to explore the world as well as experience the best on India’s best airline.@airbus @CFM_engines @AirLeaseCorp pic.twitter.com/PwVrDo9e2u— Vistara (@airvistara) February 4, 2023
Vistara is soon going to merge with former national air carrier Air India. According to him, there are constraints in terms of traffic rights and slots. He added, “We would love to operate more flights to Dubai, Singapore, but they are all constrained by traffic rights. We had to look at other options… We will look at more points in the Middle East.”
“Strong demand resulting in higher load factor and demand not being overcome due to higher fares, (hence), we were able to achieve very strong revenue performance. The flip side is that the US dollar and fuel price continued to Is.” A growing trend… we have some kind of scale, we have 53 aircraft. So, definitely the unit cost and deployment gets reduced to some extent,” Kannan said.
In addition, he said deployment of larger size aircraft is also having an impact and currently Vistara has three such aircraft in its fleet. “They are doing very well and the demand from Europe has been strong. In fact, flights are flying with load factors above 85-90 per cent. So, it plays a positive role in the airline’s performance.” He added.
with PTI inputs