The day is almost here when Vistara becomes part of Air India, and the brand will be gone for good. I’ve been writing this article in my head for over a week now, but I finally had to write it down to get it out of my system and for all of you to read.

Vistara was a great, classy airline, built right from the start. I’ve been lucky to have been able to track its genesis from its origin, back in 2014, when they came to the fore for the first time. I flew with them on the first flight, and since then, I have flown more than enough flights with them to clock in the three digits.

I’ve had the privilege of knowing and meeting many of the top management folks at Vistara and understanding their thought process for the purpose of this website. Still, I’ve always tried to be fair regarding showering praise and criticism where needed.

Vistara came up in the age of Jet Airways, the most prolific full-service carrier in India (in my view, at least) and something they were benchmarked with for a long time. Vistara was also born in the age of social media, which meant they had an easy way to spread the word. They had their tagline as “Fly the new feeling”, which, for the longest time, appeared as a hashtag on their marketing materials.

Here are some things Vistara did right to get all the customer love they rightly deserved.

Product Innovation and Risk-taking

Vistara arrived in an era when two-cabin full-service airlines (Air India and Jet Airways) were challenged by the mono-class no-frill carriers (IndiGo, Go Air, SpiceJet, JetLite, AirAsia India). Kingfisher had just gone under, and the need for another full-service carrier was intensely felt.

Vistara arrived on the scene with a three-cabin set-up, with then-CEO Phee Teik Yeoh being very bullish on the need for more premium capacity in Indian carriers and the thought process that build and they will come. He was so bullish that the launch team put 16 business class seats in the initial A320 aircraft that Vistara inducted, a decision that would have to be walked back in haste a little down the road.

Not only was Vistara instrumental in launching the “in-between” class in India (Premium Economy) in India, but it also created the conviction for Air India to go for a three-class setup with a proper “Premium Economy” over an “Economy Plus” cabin in the privatised days.

The airline continued with the innovation, being the first in India to bring in A321neo aircraft with an eye on using it for medium-haul stage-length flights abroad. For the business class customers, they brought in flatbeds, becoming one of the few airlines to hop on to the trend early.

The airline also tried Vistara Lite to counter the cheap flights that the other LCCs would mount all the time. Vistara Lite was a cabin subclass where customers would be assigned seats at the back of the bus and not served a meal. It was an attempt to fly people in an LCC offering but on an aircraft that was a full-service airline.

Another great move that the airline made was the establishment of its lounge at the Delhi Airport, which was a facility no other carrier had in India, apart from Air India (which has a long-standing grandfathered contract with Delhi and even other airports in earlier years). Apart from Vistara, only Kingfisher was the airline in recent times that went for its lounge (at Bengaluru Airport). Jet Airways had its branded lounge but was at Brussels Airport, not in India.

Corporate Friendly

Vistara knew on day one that they were creating a product for the corporates, and they wanted to be as friendly and willing to service their needs to the best of their capacity. The airline took many initiatives to this effect. The first one was the Premium Economy Cabin.

I remember the discussions in the initial days with Phee Teik very well. He would sell the cabin as a need for the corporate customer, who was not entitled to travel in the top cabin (business class) but could do with a better product than just being at the back of the bus. His rationale was that his team would be able to convince the corporates to pay a little more to travel in the premium economy cabin.

The airline also created a loyalty tier offering for the Tata Group companies called the Tata Employee Tier. After all, if you don’t serve your ilk well and poach their business, what good are you?

Vistara also targeted corporates with other differentiated initiatives. The airline became the first carrier in India to install Wi-Fi on board some of its aircraft and operationalise it for international operations.

Branding and Marketing

Vistara understood the power of an airline brand and pulled all the punches to establish the brand in the customer’s mind. It pulled a page from the book of great airlines with a movie star endorsing them (Shahrukh Khan for Jet Airways, Penelope Cruz and Jeniffer Aniston for Emirates, Katrina Kaif for Etihad and Deepika Padukone for Kingfisher Airlines). Deepika Padukone became the brand ambassador for Vistara during the early stages of the airline in 2016.

The power of branding was also reflected in the F&B offering, with Tata Starbucks being brought on board to supply coffee for the hot beverage services for premium cabins. This became a huge talking point for many customers, and over the years, it has become one of the USPs of the airline.

Vistara also claimed JRD Tata’s legacy with the special livery aircraft bearing “Tata SIA Airlines,” known as the Vistara Retrojet. It was intended to be a homage to JRD Tata and continues to be one of the standout aircraft to track at airports across India. To introduce it to the world, Vistara also had “special flights,” where the Vistara crew dressed up in uniforms from the past “golden days” of aviation.

The net effect of the branding initiatives and entwining it with the F&B initiatives also meant that the airline could create a halo effect around it, where the premium-ness of the business class cabin and the premium economy cabin also rubbed off on those in the Economy cabin.

Being in the right place at the right time

Others call it luck, but it was also about being in the right place at the right time. In its early days, Vistara became known as the Delhi-wala airline, with most people using it only when flying to Delhi. Between Jet Airways and IndiGo, most slots were gone for Vistara to expand.

And then, Jet Airways went under. The Government of India made a move to hand out Jet Airways’ domestic slots to airlines in India in line with their additional capacity, with the inference of “additional capacity” being bringing in “additional aircraft” rather than flying their aircraft more, knowing fully well that aircraft are not easy to find at short notice. The government wanted to herd the airlines to induct the Jet Airways’ aircraft to expand capacity. Jet was a Boeing operator, and only one Indian carrier would have benefited.

Vistara made a maverick move to go for a Boeing 737 fleet in addition to their A320family fleet, which came out of nowhere. It would be costly and complex for the airline. Still, for Vistara, this move opened up the ability to cherrypick routes across the country and finally break out of being the Delhi-wala airline mould.

Vistara also used the 737 it inducted to finally get its international operations off the ground, claiming some of the international slots for the airline Jet Airways exited.

I started by wanting to write a list of five things, but the fifth one was intangible. The airline hired many good people who contributed to its growth by bringing their ideas and flair to the airline. These were just good people, at corporate and on the frontline, who left a great impression on the customers of the carrier over a period of time.

Vistara’s social media team continues to be one of the best in the business. In an era where social media will only increase as a customer service channel, their priority service channels were also able to fix customer requirements quickly and very well.

There were other good things that worked for Vistara. For instance, the route network built over time and their reputation around meal service (which I found patchy, though).

I don’t mean to say that everything that Vistara touched became Gold. The airline made many mistakes and sometimes corrected them in record time, but at other times, it did not. Vistara’s IT was one such pain in the you know what. But overall, it was a decent airline with some very lovely people, and this airline will become a part of Air India on November 12, 2024. Those who worked at and work at Vistara should be proud of what they built in such a short time.

For everyone at Vistara, wishing you the best in your next era as Air Indians, and for the passengers, I hope our good ride with the airline continues.

What has impressed you the most about Vistara over the years?

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