A look at India's new airline: Vistara

Picture: Vistara

I have been following with interest the launch of India's newest airline: Vistara

Vistara is a joint venture between Tata, one of India's oldest and largest business conglomerates, and Singapore Airlines (for example, Vistara's frequent flyer programme is linked to Singapore's one).

Vistara's market entry comes at an interesting time, when the Indian airline industry as a whole, and helped by lower oil prices, is expected to make money, following a decade that saw large capacity expansion, fierce competition and consolidation, including the demise of an iconic airline such as Kingfisher.

Another interesting point is that unlike most of the airlines that sprung up in the last decade of air market liberalization, Vistara is going to operate a full service model with three classes in internal flights (business, premium economy and economy), with its Airbus A320s (it has already received five of them and the sixth will arrive shortly) in a 148-seat configuration (with a 16/36/96 class arrangement).

For the time being Vistara is focused on a small number of cities, with most of its frequencies on the trunk route Delhi-Mumbai, but also flying from the Indian capital to Ahmedabad, Goa and Hyderabad and from Mumbai to Ahmedabad also.

An project to keep an eye on...looks promising!

Picture: Vistara