Coronavirus impact: Vistara joins GoAir to suspend international flights

Vistara is suspending international flights from March 20-31 and curtailing flights on domestic routes as travel advisories and visa bans have hurt demand.

Vistara is the second Indian airline to suspend all international flights due to Covid-19. On Wednesday, GoAir announced suspension of all international flights, one-month implemented leave without pay and terminated contracts of foreign pilots.

Vistara said in a atatement, "Due to the unprecedented impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on border controls and air travel across the world, Vistara is temporarily suspending its international operations from March 20, 2020 to March 31, 2020. The airline has also temporarily adjusted domestic capacity for the months of March and April 2020 in view of reduced demand. Customers booked on the affected flights will be fully refunded."

Meanwhile aviation consultancy CAPA in its report said domestic airlines may initially ground 150 planes and retrench staff if the crisis persists beyond few weeks.

"These extraordinary conditions are expected to impact all of Q1, with the strong possibility of extending into Q2. All Indian airlines will report significant losses in Q1, even with oil prices at around $30 a barrel. At an industry level (excluding Air India), consolidated losses are estimated to be in the range of $500-600 million for the quarter. However, these are very preliminary estimates and are subject to further downward revision," CAPA said.

Most airlines in the world, including Indian carriers, will be bankrupt by the end of May due to the coronavirus pandemic and only coordinated government and industry action right now can avoid the catastrophe, global aviation consultancy firm CAPA has said.

Vistara takes delivery of its first Boeing B787-9 Dreamliner aircraft

Vistara took the delivery of its first wide-body Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner plane on Friday, making it the first Indian airline to fly this aircraft.

The plane, which has the registration number VT-TSD, will depart from the Boeing facility here at 2 pm (local time) on Friday and land in Delhi at 2 pm (local time) on Saturday, Vistara officials said here.

The new aircraft is the first of the six that Vistara has purchased from Boeing.

The second Dreamliner aircraft is currently on the production line and will be delivered soon.

Vistara's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft comes with 299 seats in a three-class cabin configuration, giving customers a choice of business, premium economy and economy cabins.

The aircraft features lie-flat business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration that gives a direct aisle access to each business class passenger and a separate premium economy cabin that offers seats in a 2-3-2 configuration.

The aircraft has in-seat televisions in all three cabins with a high-definition (HD) display, powered by Panasonic as well as in-flight WiFi internet connectivity onboard long-haul international flights, officials stated.

It would make Vistara the first airline to offer WiFi service in India.

Vistara codeshare pact with US-based United Airlines comes into effect

Tata-SIA joint venture airline Vistara on Monday said its codeshare pact with the US carrier United Airlines has come into effect from last Friday.

The two airlines had signed the codeshare pact that allows United Airlines to book seats for its passengers on Vistara's flights in India last June.

Codesharing allows an airline to book its passengers on its partner carriers and provide seamless travel to destinations where it has no presence.

The agreement enables United Airlines to codeshare on Vistara-operated Indian domestic flights starting February 28, Vistara said adding that passengers on both airlines have been enjoying the ability to earn and redeem frequent flyer points/miles on either of the frequent flyer programmes since the beginning of February.

"The US continues to be one of the biggest source markets for foreign travellers into India and the region, and this partnership allows us to provide a seamless travel offering for customers to and from the United States," Vistara Chief Commercial Officer Vinod Kannan said in a release.

The codeshare agreement enables United Airlines to put its 'UA' designator code on 68 Vistara-operated flights to 26 destinations every day, including but not limited to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Udaipur and Varanasi.

"We are excited to offer our shared customers the option of building a seamless itinerary when planning travel to cities beyond New Delhi and Mumbai," said John Gebo, senior vice-president (alliances), United Airlines.

United Airlines operates daily flights between New York/Newark and Delhi and Mumbai and also San Francisco-New Delhi.

"Our relationship with Vistara opens up even more options for customers to travel between our East and West Coast hubs and multiple destinations throughout India," he added.

Since February 1, members of Vistara's and United Airlines' frequent flyer programmes, Club Vistara and United MileagePlus, have been able to earn and redeem their CV Points/United MileagePlus miles when flying on either of the airlines' network, which means Club Vistara members can now earn and redeem CV Points on flights operated by United Airlines, and vice versa.

Vistara chief commercial officer Sanjiv Kapoor quits over personal reasons

Full service carrier Vistara on Monday said its Chief Commercial Officer Sanjiv Kapoor has put in his papers.

Chief Strategy Officer Vinod Kannan will take over as the CCO from Kapoor, who joined the airline in March 2016.

In a statement to PTI, Vistara said Kapoor has resigned due to personal reasons.

"As part of the transition process since Kapoor's resignation, some of the portfolios had been moved under Kannan's leadership, while some are still in the movement process," the statement said.

A joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines, Vistara has embarked on expanding its network.

Vistara to start daily flight on Delhi-Indore route from October 26

Vistara airline on Saturday announced it will start a daily flight on Delhi-Indore route from October 26 this year.

With this, Indore becomes 30th destination on its network.

According to Vistara, the flight will depart from Delhi airport at 6.55 am daily and arrive at Indore airport at 8.20 am.

The return flight will leave Indore at 8.55 am and arrive at Delhi airport at 10.25 am daily.

Vinod Kannan, the chief strategy officer, Vistara, said, "A key manufacturing centre that's now also emerging as a major SME hub, Indore has seen a significant spike in demand for greater air connectivity to the rest of the country."

The airline connects 30 destinations, including three international, and operates over 1,200 flights per week using 32 aircraft in its fleet.

Vistara to launch international flights in the second half of 2019

Full service carrier Vistara, which has been serving the Indian skies for more than four years, plans to launch international services in the second half of this year.

A joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines, Vistara might also look at starting medium and long-haul flights, depending on approvals, amid the grounding of Jet Airways.

"We see India as a growing market. We are here for the long term," Vistara CEO Leslie Thng said on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of airlines' grouping IATA on Sunday.

Without providing specific details, he said the airline plans to start international operations in the second half of 2019.

It had planned to launch overseas flights in the first half of this year.

Currently, Vistara has more than 22 planes and operates around 850 flights every week.

Last month, the carrier announced it would take on lease four Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft and two A320 neo planes.

In 2018, Vistara placed its order for purchased and leased aircraft totalling 50 from the Airbus A320neo family, including A321neos.

These would be for domestic as well as short and medium-haul international operations, with deliveries scheduled between 2019 and 2023.

Further, the carrier has bought six Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft that are scheduled to be delivered between 2020 and 2021. These would operate long-haul international operations.

Thng said, Vistara can start short-haul flights but would need more time for long-haul ones.

"If we do get the necessary rights, we do have a plan in place on how do we plan to operationalise it but I will not be able to share too much detail...," he said.

According to him, the airline would look at options to deploy the right type of aircraft provided it gets the necessary flying rights.

When asked about possibility of advancing deliveries of planes, Thng did not offer any comment. He said the airline is always talking to aircraft manufacturers on various issues.

The grounding of Jet Airways in April has resulted in significant capacity reduction in the domestic market.

Vistara may induct some of Jet's Boeing 737s planes and its pilots

The Singapore Airlines-Tata joint venture Vistara is likely to induct some of Jet Airways' Boeing 737s in its fleet and may offer jobs to a few B737 pilots of the crisis-ridden airline, reports said on Sunday. The airline is also conducting a walk-in interview for cabin crew on 29 and 30 April in Mumbai and Gurgaon, which will attract applications from Jet Airways' employees.

Vistara currently has Airbus A320 in its narrow-body fleet and for wide-body, the airline has placed an order for six Boeing 787 Dreamliner 787-9. These aircraft will primarily be used for long-haul routes and are expected to arrive by 2020.

Commenting on the same, the Tata Sons-Singapore Airlines joint venture airline told TOI “The recent reduction in capacity has inconvenienced travellers, especially in the full-service segment. We will continue to grow our network to meet market demand."

Jet Airways, on April 16, announced that it will suspend all operations, domestic and international, with immediate effect.

If Vistara inducts B737s, it will be the second Indian airline, after Air India, to have a mixed fleet of narrow-body Boeing and Airbus aircraft. Vistara could also get more slots at the constrained Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore airports after Jet's suspension freed up slots there.

Jet's grounding has also had a big impact on air fares with inter-city air fares to major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata soaring more than 20 per cent in May and June, according to Yatra.com.

The spike in fares is expected to underpin strong earnings for IndiGo and SpiceJet Ltd, which are set to report results for the quarter ended March 31 in the coming weeks.

"Domestic Indian carriers are the main benefactors, but I suspect if Jet fails to be revived by May 10 then Vistara and other airlines that ply international routes, particularly the lucrative Gulf market, are the main winners," Shukor Yusof, the head of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics was quoted as saying by Reuters.