This is a good article. Click here for more information.

Vistara

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
Vistara
250px
IATA ICAO Callsign
UK VTI VISTARA
Founded 2013
Commenced operations 9 January 2015 (2015-01-09)
Hubs Indira Gandhi International Airport
Frequent-flyer program Club Vistara
Fleet size 10
Destinations 16
Company slogan Fly the new feeling
Parent company Tata Sons
Headquarters One Horizon Center, Gurgaon, India
Key people Bhaskar Bhat (Chairman)
Phee Teik Yeoh (CEO)
Employees 900 (March 2016)[1]
Website www.airvistara.com

Vistara is an Indian airline based in Gurgaon with its hub at Delhi-Indira Gandhi International Airport. The carrier, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, commenced operations on 9 January 2015 with its inaugural flight between Delhi and Mumbai. The airline had carried more than one million passengers by December 2015 and as of February 2016, has a 2% share of the domestic carrier market. The airline operates to 16 domestic destinations with a fleet of Airbus A320-200 aircraft. Vistara was the first airline to introduce premium economy seats on domestic routes in India.

History

The airline was founded in 2013 as a joint venture (JV) between India's conglomerate Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines.[2][3][4][5][6] The duo earlier made an unsuccessful bid in the mid-1990s to launch a full service carrier in India which was denied regulatory approval then by the Indian government.[7] With India opening up its airline sector for 49 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2012, Tata and SIA once again decided to float a JV airline company in India.[8] The JV, Tata SIA Airlines limited (TSAL), was envisioned as a premium full-service carrier to cater to the high-end business traveler's demands in India's civil aviation market dominated by low-cost carriers. India's Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved the JV in October 2013, allowing SIA to take a 49 percent stake in the airline.[9] The two parent companies initially pledged to invest a combined US$100mn as start-up capital, with Tata Sons owning 51 percent and Singapore Airlines owning the remaining 49 percent.[10] This was part of Tata's second major foray into the aviation sector along with a minority stake in AirAsia India.[11] Their first venture, Tata Airlines was established in the 1930s and later became the flag carrier Air India after nationalization.[12]

The company unveiled its brand identity "Vistara" on 11 August 2014.[3] The name was taken from the Sanskrit word Vistaar, meaning "limitless expanse".[13][14] Vistara received its air operator's certificate or the flying licence from the aviation regulator DGCA on 15 December 2014 and started operations on 9 January 2015.[11][15][16] Vistara became the first carrier to operate domestic services out of the new Terminal 2 at Mumbai CSI Airport.[17] On 24 August 2015, Vistara inaugurated the Aviation Security Training Institute, an in-house institute for training its cockpit and cabin crew, security staff and others related to aviation industry. The institute has secured the necessary approvals from the nodal body Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.[18] From the first month of operation, Vistara consistently achieved very high on-time performance (OTP) records of over 90 percent, highest among India's domestic carriers.[19][20] On 20 August 2015, Vistara declared it had carried half a million passengers in just over seven months in operation.[21] As of February 2016, Vistara has a share of 2% in the domestic carrier market.[22]

Corporate affairs

In March 2015, Vistara shifted to its new office at the One Horizon Center tower in Sector 43, Gurgaon, a satellite city of Delhi.[23][24] Vistara chose Phee Teik Yeoh as the chief executive officer (CEO) and Giam Ming Toh as the chief commercial officer (CCO), both with Singapore Airlines background.[25] Initially it started out with a three-member board comprising Swee Wah Mak (SIA group), Mukund Rajan and Prasad Menon (Tata group), with the latter as chairman.[26][27] In August 2015, the airline expanded the board by introducing two new members, Som Mittal and Sangeeta Pendurkar in it along with equity infusion of ₹2 billion (US$30 million) part of ₹5 billion (US$74 million) initially planned by Tata and SIA together.[28][29] In January 2016, Bhaskar Bhat, former Managing Director of Titan, joined as the new chairman following Prasad Menon's retirement.[30] In March 2016, Vistara appointed Sanjiv Kapoor as its chief strategy and commercial officer as the successor of Giam Ming Toh who will leave in mid April 2016 following completion of his deputation at Vistara.[31]

Destinations

As of May 2016, Vistara flies to the following destinations:[32]

Country (State) City Airport Notes Ref
India (Assam) Guwahati Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport [33]
India (Chandigarh) Chandigarh Chandigarh International Airport [33]
India (Delhi) Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport Hub [33]
India (Goa) Dabolim Goa International Airport [33]
India (Gujarat) Ahmedabad Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport [33]
India (Jammu and Kashmir) Jammu Jammu Airport [33]
India (Jammu and Kashmir) Srinagar Srinagar Airport [33]
India (Karnataka) Bangalore Kempegowda International Airport [33]
India (Kerala) Kochi Cochin International Airport [34]
India (Maharashtra) Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport [33]
India (Maharashtra) Pune Pune International Airport [33]
India (Odisha) Bhubaneswar Biju Patnaik International Airport [33]
India (Telangana) Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi International Airport [33]
India (Uttar Pradesh) Lucknow Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport [33]
India (Uttar Pradesh) Varanasi Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport [33]
India (West Bengal) Kolkata Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport begins 10 June 2016 [35]
India (West Bengal) Siliguri Bagdogra Airport [33]

Interline agreements

Vistara has interline agreements with the following airlines:

Fleet

Vistara's first Airbus A320 aircraft (VT-TTB) at Delhi IGI Airport

As of May 2016, Vistara operates the following aircraft:

Vistara fleet[38][39]
Aircraft In Service Orders Passengers[40] Notes
J S Y Total
Airbus A320-200 10 3 8 24 126 158 Deliveries through 2016.[41][42]
16 36 96 148
Airbus A320neo — 7 TBA Deliveries through 2017-2018.[43]
Total
10
10

Vistara took delivery of its first aircraft at New Delhi on 25 September 2014.[44] The airline plans to take delivery of all 13 Airbus A320ceo by 2016[42] and 7 Airbus A320neo of its initial order by 2018.[43] In March 2015, Phee Teik Yeoh announced that the airline is planning to procure an unspecified number of both narrow-body and wide-body aircraft to enhance the domestic network and launch international flights within two years.[45][46]

Services

Cabin

Business class

Being a full-service carrier, Vistara offers 16 business class seats, four rows in 2-2 configuration, in its 148-seater Airbus A320-200 fleet. The business class seats are 20.12 inches (511 mm) wide with 42 inches (1,100 mm) seat pitch.[47]

Premium Economy

Vistara was the first airline in India to introduce Premium Economy class in the domestic market.[48] At present it offers 36 premium economy seats, six rows in 3-3 configuration, out of total 148 seats in the single aisle Airbus A320-200 aircraft in its fleet. Each being 18 inches (460 mm) wide and having a pitch of 33–36 inches (840–910 mm).[47]

In-flight entertainment

As of April 2016, Vistara's Airbus A320-200s do not have in-flight entertainment screens installed and it provides pre-loaded tablets for its business-class fliers.[49] In March 2016, Vistara started beaming content directly to passenger's personal electronic devices through one-way Wi-Fi connection through BAE Systems IntelliCabin in-flight entertainment system.[50]

Catering

The in-flight food is catered by TajSATS Air Catering, also a joint venture between the Tatas and Singapore, headed by Chef Arun Batra, formerly the executive chef of the Taj Hotels group.[51] Vistara offers four different meals for each cabin for different time of the day — breakfast, refreshment, lunch and dinner with options of one veg; one non-veg dishes in economy class, two veg; one non-veg in premium economy and two veg; two non-veg dishes for business-class cabin. The menu is typically changed in every seventh day and offers different menu for lunch and dinner to avoid serving same menu to business fliers returning same day.[52] It also provides special meals upon request 24 hours before departure.[53][54]

Lounge

On 29 March 2016, Vistara inaugurated premium lounge service for its Business-class passengers and Club Vistara Gold card holder at the departure level of terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport at Delhi. The lounge is spread across 250 square meter on the air-side and can seat 75 passengers at a time.[55]

Frequent-flyer program

File:Club Vistara logo.jpg
Club Vistara, frequent-flier program of Vistara

Vistara uses Club Vistara as its frequent-flyer program;[56] it operates as a value based program and rewards on the basis of money spent on tickets rather that miles travelled by passengers.[57] On 29 January 2015, Vistara announced a partnership agreement with Singapore Airlines (SIA) which would allow Club Vistara members to earn and redeem miles with KrisFlyer program on SIA's (including Silk Air) global network and vice versa.[58]

See also

References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.

Use <references />, or <references group="..." />

External links

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ 33.00 33.01 33.02 33.03 33.04 33.05 33.06 33.07 33.08 33.09 33.10 33.11 33.12 33.13 33.14 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ https://www.airvistara.com/trip/press-releases#press-title-311
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  52. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  54. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  55. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  56. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  57. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  58. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Vistara&oldid=722683978"