Vistara was one of the early ones to take advantage of Jet Airways slots being made available. They expanded out of Mumbai by adding a few flights to Bangalore, Hyderabad, Goa and Kolkata.
Vistara is onboarding 4 ex-Jet Airways 737 aircraft and will take up to 10 of them. Apart from this, Vistara is also adding an all-economy A320neo, VT-TNN which flew for erstwhile WOW air. While three Boeing 737-800, VT-TGA/B/D are already inducted into the fleet, the others will join soon. Vistara added new flights to Chandigarh, Amritsar and Guwahati from Delhi using a 737.
We know that Vistara will add three new sectors from Mumbai including Chennai apart from adding more frequencies on existing routes like Hyderabad, Goa and so-on. Vistara had also started putting flights out on these routes but didn’t open it up for the full schedule, perhaps because the aircraft is still under induction.
ex-Jet Airways 737 flying for Vistara now
As a part of temporary additions from June 5 to 7, 2019, Vistara had added daily flights on Mumbai-Goa, Mumbai-Hyderabad and Mumbai-Chennai routes.
Well, Vistara has firmed up some of these routes as well as added more new routes from Mumbai. The schedule for the new flights are,
Thrice daily Mumbai – Chennai
UK821 BOM0540 – 0750MAA 737 D
UK822 MAA0830 – 1050BOM 737 D
UK823 BOM1835 – 2040MAA 737 D
UK824 MAA2120 – 2335BOM 737 D
From June 12, 2019, Vistara will add a third daily frequency on Mumbai-Chennai route with the following schedule,
UK825 BOM1405 – 1630MAA 320 D
UK826 MAA1045 – 1305BOM 320 D
Vistara has closed bookings for Chennai-Port Blair route from June 12, 2019, to August 1, 2019, as the aircraft will be utilised for UK825/6.
Daily Mumbai-Varanasi
UK621 BOM1235 – 1505VNS 737 D
UK622 VNS1540 – 1755BOM 737 D
Twice Daily Mumbai – Kolkata
UK771 BOM0620 – 0900CCU 737 D
UK772 CCU0940 – 1230BOM 737 D
UK773 BOM1730 – 2020CCU 737 D
UK774 CCU2135 – 0025(+1 day)BOM 737 D
Daily Mumbai – Goa
UK772 BOM1310 – 1410GOI 737 D
UK773 GOI1440 – 1600BOM 737 D
Well, the following new routes require two 737s. One on BOM-MAA-BOM-VNS-BOM-MAA-BOM rotation and another on BOM-CCU-BOM-GOI-BOM-CCU-BOM rotation. All the routes are open for reservations till July 31, 2019.
You might be wondering why Vistara is adding routes on such short notice. Well, Vistara has got a lot on its hand. It’s not easy to induct a new aircraft type on such a short notice and adding to that the deadline to utilise the temporary slots being allocated. At least Vistara is trying its best to bring in as much capacity as they can, even if they open up reservations a few days before.
https://twitter.com/TheSanjivKapoor/status/1136621367426736129
Well, the expansion from Mumbai may not end here. One of the new routes mentioned in Vistara’s inflight magazine is Mumbai-Chandigarh which is left to start. And also with more 737s coming in, additional frequency on existing routes may also be added.
I have flown Mumbai Bangalore thrice since it has started. Mumbai Hyderabad is afternoon flight so not tried it yet. So is Mumbai Chennai again is afternoon so will not work. I will fly Kolkata during evening flight. I had earlier flown Mumbai Goa may be 9 years back so may repeat it post Monsoon.
I understand that the 737 have 2 class configuration instead of the regular 3 class on vistara. Does that mean that an upgrade voucher will get you to business from economy ticket?