According to the airline, its domestic services are well-covered with 31 destinations in India.
We are doing well in India. We are looking into expanding internationally. Vistara CEO Vinod Thandali Kannan told me on the sidelines of IATA's recent annual general meeting that they started with London.
The airline wants to open services to Japan and South Korea, as well as increase frequencies on existing European routes, according to the CEO. Kannan said that they fly to the Middle East to destinations such as Riyadh. There could be flights to the U.S. in the future.
Delivery of its remaining Boeing 787-9s on order is limiting the expansion plan. Kannan said they were waiting for when Boeing would give them to them.
“The 787s are late, and this affects the growth plan quite a bit. We should have received them in 2020, and then in 2021.”
Vistara CEO Vinod Thandali Kannan
Vistara Takes Delivery of Their First Boeing 787 Dreamliner
Two 787-9s are one of the aircraft that Vistara operates. Most of the time, we operate the A320neo and A321neos. Kannan said that the Jet Airways aircraft will leave the fleet in the next six to twelve months.
The company plans to operate 70 aircraft by the end of the year. The minimum size of fleet is not a magic number. Depending on your business model. Kannan said that you needed scale.
New opportunities would be offered by the A321XLR. The CEO said that they will look beyond the Gulf region when they get A321XLRs. There will be a lot of options.
The planned operations to Moscow have been put off.
The carrier started operations in 2015. There are 76 daily departures from New Delhi and 50 from Mumbai.
Kannan said that Vistara didn't look to join a global alliance. There are a lot of bilateral agreements where we have code shares with other airlines.
The SIA is a shareholder in Vistara, which is owned by the TATA Group. They work together to figure out how Vistara fits with Air India now that they have invested in the Indian carrier.
Kannan said that they are looking into it, but Singapore Airlines will have to decide if a deal can be done.
India's market is growing. The load factors are a bit lower than before. The Indian market is large.
“Only 5-10% of the Indian population has flown. And people who have flown will fly again,”
Vistara CEO Vinod Thandali Kannan
The domestic market in India has a lot of price sensitivities as 80% of it is served by low cost carriers. People don't mind spending more because we have more space. Kannan said that they also offer a premium economy class.
In India, the infrastructure for airlines is not easy. Kannan said thatVistara's domestic operations have been affected by fuel prices and taxation. You can manage some of the costs. Our costs are in U.S. dollars, but our revenues are mostly in Indian rupee. The best airline in India is us. It was easy to get there, but it's difficult to maintain that level. We see good support on European flights.
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