Vistara inducts third Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to fleet

File image of a parked Vistara aircraft.

Full-service airline Vistara is inducting the third Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to its fleet, CNBC-TV18 reported on August 6. The Tata Sons-Singapore Airlines joint venture plans to use the new aircraft to increase its flight frequency to Frankfurt and Paris from October 30, 2022, it added.

Vistara is looking to operate six weekly flights between Delhi and Frankfurt and five weekly flights between Delhi and Paris from October 30 this year. It has also opened bookings for additional flights, the channel said.

Earlier in March, Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan told Reuters that the domestic airline was in talks with lessors for long-haul aircraft to bridge the gap left by Boeing 787 deliveries. The deliveries were frozen since May 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

At the time, Vistara had around 50 aircraft, including two 787-9s received before the delivery suspension and a mix of Airbus and Boeing narrow-body airliners. The plan is to take 20 more aircraft by 2023-end for domestic and close international destinations.

The seven-year-old company is looking at expanding its global footprint as “priority”, but has not yet made a profit. The airline's losses narrowed last fiscal year, and Kannan said he had seen a further improvement until February when fuel prices spiked. While demand is growing and airfares are moving higher, it will be difficult to offset higher fuel costs and the burden of a depreciating rupee, he said.