BHUBANESWAR, OCT 01, 2015: Low cost domestic carrier Vistara, a Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines joint venture, today added one more destination to its list with the launch of its commercial operations from Bhubaneswar to New Delhi.
The inaugural flight UK763 linking Delhi and Bhubaneswar landed at Biju Patnaik International Airport at 6.35 PM and departed for New Delhi (flight No. UK 762) at 7:15 PM this evening.
From October 5 onwards, Vistara would run two daily flights connecting Bhubaneswar with New Delhi, said Niyant Maru, Chief Financial Officer, Tata SIA Airlines Limited.
This is Vistara’s third destination in east after Guwahati and Bagdogra, Maru said.
When asked what prompted Vistara to include Bhubaneswar as a major destination, Maru said, “The company has chosen Bhubaneswar given the surge of investments to Odisha and the emergence of the city as a fastest growing IT and education hub.”
Vistara, which started operation in India on January 09, 2015, presently has 293 frequencies across 11 destinations viz. New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Goa, Guwahati, Bagdogra and Bhubaneswar. It would include Varanasi to its list of destinations on October 21, informed the CFO.
While other full-service airlines offer business and economy classes, Vistara divided its cabins into three categories—business, premium economy and economy. As of now, Vistara offers 16 seats in business class, 36 in the premium economy segment and 96 under economy category. It’s operating its flights at around 60 per cent occupancy, which is far below the other domestic airlines.
“We are keeping a close tab on our occupancy and the market dynamics. But we don’t have any immediate plan, at least till December this year, for reconfiguration of seats despite the low load factor in business class,” said Maru adding that the premium economy class with its features like extra leg space, segregated check in facility and other add-on facilities are drawing more corporate travellers and this could be one of the reasons for the lukewarm response to business class.
At present, Vistara has seven aircrafts in its fleet, and it plans to add two more aircrafts by end of this calendar year and, further expand it to 20 by 2019.
