August is turning out to be a big month for Vistara. After taking off in 2015, the airline qualified to fly abroad in 2018 after taking delivery of their 20th aircraft. They only received permission to fly abroad in March 2019. Just last month, the airline started to move forward on the plans to fly international, after digressing for a bit cornering more flights in India, largely Mumbai with acquired 737 aircraft. Colombo’s terror attacks also put their plans in a bit of a twist as their first international destination.
Now, Vistara is all set to launch their maiden international flight, to Singapore tomorrow, on August 6, 2019 from Delhi. A day later, the second international flight to Singapore will be launched, from Mumbai. Both flights will be daily operations to Singapore, and will be operated by the 737 aircraft, to be later swapped by newer A320/1 equipment of Vistara as they start to come on board later this year.
On the back of this, Vistara has now announced the launch of their second international flight from Mumbai to Dubai on August 21, 2019. Vistara opened bookings on August 1, 2019 for these daily flights between Mumbai and Dubai, which will be operated with the Airbus A320neo aircraft of the airline. This will make Vistara the first airline to offer Premium Economy for travel between India and the UAE. The timings of this new flight will be:
UK201 BOM1625 – 1815DXB 320 D
UK202 DXB1915 – 0015 (+1)BOM 320 D
The Vistara Dubai flight practically turns around in Dubai in one hour, which is a good thing. The timings of the flight look good for those who are visiting Dubai for work or pleasure.
Subsequent to this route, Vistara will also launch a flight to Bangkok from Delhi, and to Kathmandu in the coming days as well. The Bangkok flights should be something we are going to hear about very soon.
Bottomline
Vistara is going to be the airline to watch on the international routes in the days ahead. As the only new full-service airline in India flying abroad, they will sure bring a new product/experience on board which is something not seen before. Remember, there will be a lot of announcements coming from their end in the coming days, and a lot of questions will be asked and answered in the coming days.
What are the other routes you think Vistara will fly in the coming days apart from those announced?
Sadly, they are using Jet’s 737s that offer a dreadful product particularly for a 5 hour jaunt to Singapore. With no IFE, wifi and premium economy and cramped seating, I simply am not in any hurry to try them as much as I would like to. I would rather be on Air India’s Dreamliner service and of course their queen Mother SIA.
Vistara may become a more attractive choice once they bring in the A321neos with a premium economy. I do hope they at least get wifi or at best some embedded IFE for their medium haul routes. Given their full service positioning, this really needs to be addressed.