Tata, Singapore Airlines joint venture Vistara said it will double its fleet size by the end of the current fiscal, taking its total plane count to 42. With network expansion chief priority of the airline, the carrier has already added about 50% of its previous capacity in the seven months, flying about 45 lakh passengers in the same duration. “Vistara has taken the count of destinations in its network from 23 to 34, spread across India while also foraying in the international market, with plans to further add multiple destinations and beefing up frequencies on existing key routes in the next few months,” the full-time carrier said in a statement.
The expansion made by Vistara in last few months has helped it operate over 70% more flights than it did around March 2019. Vistara has already placed fresh orders of 50 aircraft from the Airbus A320neo family, including the A321neo, which will be delivered until 2023, as the airline looks to strengthen its presence. Three of these aeroplanes have been delivered while the airline looks to induct six more A320neo aircraft by December 2019, and one Airbus A321neo between January and March 2020.
Meanwhile, the current year has seen a severe flight crunch due to grounding of Boeing 737 MAX and shutting down of Naresh Goyal-founded Jet Airways and the flight expansion by domestic airlines could bring relief to the sector and the passengers.
The domestic passenger growth has been dismal this year, according to industry leaders, as limited capacity expansion took place. “Because of Jet Airways going away, there were a lot of routes where capacity has not gotten added. While carriers have added capacity to close to India routes like Bangkok, Sri Lanka, the Middle East and so on, Jet Airways capacity on many routes has not been replaced,” Balu Ramachandran, Senior Vice President, Cleartrip, had told Financial Express Online in an interview last month. The lesser capacity expansion meant lesser passenger volume growth. Meanwhile, Vistara also added Bangkok, Colombo, Dibrugarh, Dubai, Indore, Jodhpur, Khajuraho, Patna, Singapore, Thiruvananthapuram and Udaipur to its network since April, Vistara said in a statement.