The stage is set for the big Air India-Vistara merger. Once all the paperwork is complete and all approvals received, the two will merge business to form a consolidated full-service carrier. Vistara, unfortunately, will cease to exist to make way for a more well-known Air India brand globally, but until that happens, it continues to expand its network, particularly out of Mumbai.
Photo: Airbus
One only needs to look at all the new flights Vistara has launched from Mumbai (BOM) in the last few months to understand that the city is its new favorite. Even Vistara’s Chief Executive Officer Vinod Kannan has said that the airline will increase its presence from India’s commercial capital. He told The Hindu,
“Mumbai will remain a focus of growth because we have added so much domestic capacity to help grow our international connections. Today, we operate 12 international flights from Mumbai as compared with 7 from Delhi and more international flights will be added from Mumbai in the coming months.”
Kannan highlighted that the airline has 54 daily domestic departures from Mumbai. This will go up to 67 departures starting in August, and by the end of this year, Mumbai will match Delhi with 78 daily domestic departures.
Vistara’s fleet enhancement will also continue well into early next year. It will take deliveries of around 10 more aircraft, including three Boeing 787s, and have a fleet of 70 aircraft by March 2024. Indeed, one could still expect more route announcements from the airline in the coming months.
Recent additions to Mumbai
Vistara has significantly and rapidly expanded its international operations out of Mumbai in the last one year. It added a non-stop flight to Bangkok in August last year, followed by its service to Jeddah the same month.
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This was followed by its Mumbai-Abu Dhabi service in October and Mumbai-Dhaka flight in November. In December, it connected another Middle East destination with Mumbai – Muscat, and in March this year, it resumed flights from Mumbai to Colombo in Sri Lanka.
In March, Vistara also started deploying its newly acquired Airbus A321LR aircraft to flights between Mumbai and Mauritius, and since June, it is also flying one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft between Mumbai and London Heathrow.
Legacy to continue
Vistara recently celebrated a significant milestone – it flew its 50 millionth passenger. Indeed, the airline is loved by many loyalists who are saddened that the brand will discontinue after business integration with Air India.
But Vistara’s legacy will continue as the Tata Group is keen on adopting its standard operating procedures of Vistara for its merger carrier. In fact, discussion and data sharing about the safety SOPs are already underway, and those related to customer service will start following the merger.
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With inputs from The Hindu