Vistara to fly overseas with Jet Airways’s planes

In a positive development for the Indian aviation sector that has been facing troubles for some time, Vistara, the Tata Group-Singapore Airlines backed carrier, will be spreading its wings to the international market.

The airline said its first flights to Singapore from Delhi and Mumbai will start from August 6 and 7, respectively. The carrier will operate two daily flights.

The airline's plans to fly abroad were delayed due to security approval issues despite it flying 20 aircraft in its fleet way back in June last year. Sources said the airline had first planned to start its maiden international flight to Sri Lanka, but had to change it after the Easter day terror attacks in the island nation.

The development seems significant following the collapsing of Jet Airways, another full-service carrier which ceased its operations in April. The sudden vacuum created by its grounding had caused a surge in airfares. Vistara added six Boeing 737s to its all-Airbus SE A320 fleet during the period in order to fill the gap. Interestingly, the airline will be using Jet Airways's Boeing 737-800NG aircraft with two-class cabin configuration (business and economy) leased by it to fly to Singapore.

Commenting on the development, Leslie Thng, CEO, Vistara, said, "We're excited to start with Singapore as our first international destination, which we see as a very important market, given the opportunities it presents for corporate, business as well as leisure travel."

Last year Vistara placed its aircraft order of a combination of purchased and leased planes totalling 50 from the Airbus A320neo family (including the A321neo) for domestic as well as short- and medium-haul international operations, with deliveries scheduled between 2019 and 2023. Additionally, the airline has purchased six Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft that are scheduled to be delivered between 2020 and 2021, and will be used for long-haul international operations.

Vistara will be the first airline to fly to international destinations after the watering down of the 5/20 rule. The rule mandated that for an airline to fly on international routes, it should have been operating since at least five years and have a minimum of 20 aircraft in its fleet. The rule was later changed to 0/20, thus doing away with the requirement of having to operate five years minimum.

According to data released by Changi Airport Group earlier this year, the passenger traffic between Singapore and India registered the strongest growth of 12% in 2018 and touching the 4.76 million mark, as the city-state's airport handled a record 65 million travellers last year. It listed Mumbai among the top 20 routes, the traffic on which grew by at least 5% last year.