Indian full-service carrier Vistara took off in 2015 and began international service in 2019.
Some ten international destinations will be served this winter, most under quote-unquote
‘bubble’ agreements, while the US edges closer. Vinod Kannan, Vistara’s Chief Commercial Officer
and Chief Executive designate, noted that it expects to add 10-12 additional destinations soon.
In 2020, Vistara added eight aircraft: four A320neos, two A321neos, and two 787-9s. However,
it returned four older A320ceos, which equates to a net fleet growth of four
aircraft. Kannan reaffirmed the carrier’s commitment to a 70-strong fleet in the next
two years, over 55% more than it currently has. There will be a higher emphasis on all-economy
aircraft to penetrate more domestic markets. Nonetheless, Kannan remained confident that
“Vistara fills a void in the market as a modern Indian airline with a brand-new fleet
offering a world-class travel experience.” Speaking with the website Routes, he said:
“We are uniquely positioned with a clear competitive edge. We believe we are at par with
most well-established global carriers, offering the experience of our brand-new B787-9 aircraft.”
Despite the pandemic, Kannan said that Vistara sees great potential
for long-haul non-stop flights from India and has been steadily growing its global network.
“Since the start of the pandemic, we have expanded our network with London Heathrow,
Dhaka, Dubai, Doha, Frankfurt, Sharjah, Male, and Tokyo. We will be operating non-stop flights
from Delhi to Paris CDG starting November 7th. We have also operated charter flights to many other
destinations, including Hong Kong and Seoul.” Having received a foreign air carrier permit to
serve the US, international markets are very much part of Vistara’s future to become a quote-unquote
“globally renowned airline.” Some 10 to 12 destinations will be added as soon as possible,
but whether these are international, domestic, long-haul, or short-haul was not clarified.
Kannan said he hopes to launch the US “in the coming months,” but stopped short of
indicating where Vistara will fly or when they’ll begin, or to what degree
it’ll rely on partner carrier United Airlines. However, we think Vistara’s US operations will
be from Delhi and probably a large and renowned market, rather than anything overly unusual or
innovative. This seems to be the airline’s approach to network development thus far.
With 253,000 round-trip passengers in 2019, Delhi to JFK is the largest Indian market to the US.
However, as you’d expect from demand based on visiting friends and relatives,
fares aren’t high on average. When broken down per nautical mile,
the Delhi-JFK average fare in 2019 ($449) was 37%
lower than Washington to Amman, a route United will launch in May 2022.
This is despite Delhi-JFK being 23% longer. No need to read below:
Passengers in 2019 with one-way fare (excluding taxes/fuel surcharge)
Delhi-JFK: 253,000 passengers; $449 Delhi-San Francisco: 284,000 passengers; $438
Delhi-Chicago: 127,000 passengers; $459 Delhi-Los Angeles: 117,000 passengers; $473
Delhi-Newark: 114,000 passengers; $542 Delhi-Washington (incl. Baltimore): 103,000
passengers; $480
If you want to find out more about this airline, we’ll be speaking more in-depth with Vistara Chief
Commercial Officer, Vinod Kannan, as well as other industry leaders on November 10th and 11th at
Simple Flying’s online Future Flying Forum event. Keep watching to find out what it’s all about...