Indian carrier Vistara eyes UAE expansion

Less than a year old in Indian skies, yet Vistara is keen on expanding its operations to include UAE on its flightplan as part of the airline's 'short-term' expansion strategy that could see the carrier take off for Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah between one to five years.

The airline is also bullish on introducing the premium economy sector on the UAE-India flights, which will be priced between the traditional business and economy class models to serve up more legroom, exclusive services and other benefits to passengers.

Speaking with Emirates 24|7, Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh further stated the airline was positively looking towards an amendment in the current 5/20 civil aviation restriction that does not permit an airline to launch overseas operations from India until it has completed five years of service and retains 20 aircraft in its fleet.

Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh. (Supplied)

Yeoh stated: "We are positive there will be a policy amendment by October of this year, which will allow start-ups such as ourselves to benefit from such a ruling and launch our international operations in accordance."

Yeoh was in Dubai to announce the appointment of Sharaf Travels as its General Sales Agent or GSA, which will represent Vistara's network in UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Speaking about the importance of the Gulf sector, Yeoh said: "The UAE's is the third largest trade partner with India, with 50 million people in the GCC block that is a target market for Vistara.

“It would be remiss of the airline not to include the UAE as part of the strategy to increase its global footprint."

There are 700 flights that currently operate between UAE and India per week; when quizzed over crowded skies in this market, Yeoh said: "It was a month ago that Indian Prime Minister Modi visited the UAE with an agenda to boost trade ties between the two nations.

“As trade grows, travel will flow accordingly, and we are poised to grow with this demand for more seats on this sector."

Yeoh further added that Vistara's current A320 narrow body aircraft could fit well on this route.

Is there room for its premium economy model on the UAE-India route?

"Why not?" said Yeoh. "Vistara was the first to bring this model on the domestic sector in India. Until then, premium economy is traditionally deployed on routes with at least five to seven hours of travel time.

"Our growth has proven there is a market, so we are optimistic the short-haul three hours flight on premium economy on this route is a product that has potential."

While the airline looks to expand its operations to this region, Vistara also confirmed it is currently in talks with two Gulf carriers to expand its inter airline agreement, which could include packaging its Indian network in a single airfare or checking baggage all the way through from the overseas point of origin.

The Vistara executives declined to the name the two Gulf carriers.

Launched on January 9, 2015, Vistara is a joint venture between Tata Sons Limited and Singapore Airlines, the Delhi-based carrier currently flies to 10 destinations across India, with the addition of two new cities by October.

The full service carrier operates a three-class configurations across the domestic Indian sector, with business class, economy and the premium economy seating with 20 per cent more legroom.

The airline currently operates six A320s, with three more to be added to the fleet by year end; Vistara will add an additional four aircraft by 2016.       

When asked, the airline CEO stated there were no immediate plans to increase the carrier's order book from its current 20 aircraft.

 

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