By Vaibhav Agrawal
Until its shareholders decide on the future of its identity, full-service airline Vistara will continue to regard other airlines operating under the Tata brand as competitors, according to CEO Vinod Kannan. With a 9.7% market share in August, Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, recently clinched the No. 2 position in the domestic aviation market after seven years of operations.
When asked about the future of Vistara amid merger talks with Air India, CEO Vinod Kannan said that there have been numerous media reports. Being an interested party as Vistara, they are not participating in this topic, but they will wait to hear from the shareholders. He had informed his colleagues that, regardless of the outcome, they still have 70 aircraft that must fly and seats that must be sold; these obligations will not change.
He also noted that even though they are a part of the same company, they regard all of these airlines as competitors from a business standpoint, and they do so both internally and with clients. They actually run a lot of parallel courses among themselves, and this is probably going to continue until they make a decision or establish some rules. Therefore, they still treat these airlines as competitors, and they will keep doing so. He said so when asked about his views on AirAsia India, Air India, and Air India Express as rivals.
Speaking about whether he would wait for clarity on merger talks before finalising fleet order, He noted that the two do not directly relate to one another. Wide-body direct flights will be favoured, especially after COVID-19, due to the nature of the Indian market. No matter what happens, there will be room for them to expand because there will be sufficient demand.
When asked about Vistara’s possible plans of adding further all-economy aircraft to cater to the domestic sector, He pointed out that he is now seated at 53 aircraft today and will reach 70 aircraft at the end of the year 2023. They are considering seven Boeing 787 aircraft, including six of their own and one that is now leased and due to arrive.
The remaining 53 aircraft will all be A320s, with 10 more being A321s for regional international destinations like Singapore and Dubai. Ten of the 53 A320S will be all-economy, and the remaining 43 will be their standard three-class configuration. Three more will be sent between now and the end of 2023 because he currently has seven of the all-economy. Even on all-economy, they are operating as full-service.
Talking about Vistara’s plan for a two-class configuration in its aircraft, he explains that they will not go that path. Naturally, they are using two-class service on the Boeing 737s that they acquired following Jet Airways’ suspension. There are five of those planes here. By the end of this year, three of the fleet will be gone, but by the middle of 2023, the remaining two will also be gone. As a result, they will start to favour three-class or all-economy aircraft.
