Vistara starts weekly flight to Tokyo’s Haneda airport, expands global reach

Vistara’s first flight to Japan touched down at Haneda airport in Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon, expanding the Indian carrier’s global route map and marking the start of a new phase in its international plans.

Vistara becomes the only Indian carrier to fly to Haneda. The direct flight operates under the air bubble agreement between India and Japan once a week.

Before the pandemic hit the globe, Air India was the only Indian airline flying between India and Japan, while Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways flew from the Japanese side. Air India flies to Narita, whereas Haneda airport is closer to downtown Tokyo and is said to be the preferred airport for the business community.

While starting flights to a new destination may seem normal in an airline’s expansion plans, what marks Vistara’s once-a-week flight to Japan is its choice of the destination airport. According to Captain PP Singh, former senior vice president of JetLite and now an examiner on the Airbus A-330 with Nepal Airlines, Haneda’s main attraction is its location overlooking Tokyo Bay.

“For a point-to-point carrier like Vistara with limited seats on offer, operating to Haneda makes a lot more sense. Also, for future expansion, Haneda will offer more night-time international slots unlike Narita, which suffers from night curfew restrictions,” Singh said.

The head of an international airline in India added that India-Japan traffic is predominantly bilateral and reciprocal, with a smattering of passengers headed onwards to the US.

“Vistara’s codeshare partners are Japan Airlines and United Airlines, both of which have decent international connections from Haneda. So, it was logical for Vistara to choose Haneda over Narita,” an official with an international airline said, asking not to be identified because he is not permitted to speak to the media.

Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, signed a code share agreement with JAL in 2019 and with United Airlines in the following year. Code-sharing allows partner airlines to provide seamless connectivity to their flyers through each other’s networks.

Singh added that the Boeing 787 that Vistara is using is a great choice on medium-density routes because it offers the best operating costs and passenger comfort in that class.

However, there are some drawbacks of operating to Haneda. Singh pointed out that Haneda is busier than Narita with significant noise restrictions in place.

“It is also more expensive in terms of airport charges and (there could be) possible delays due to high traffic density, which is predominantly domestic,” he said.

The launch of Vistara’s Haneda flight is part of the airline’s global rollout plan, which was unveiled by CEO Leslie Thng in August 2019, when its first international flight landed in Singapore. At the media interaction, the CEO had also expressed an interest in doing business with Japan. Thng had then said that Vistara would start flights to destinations in Europe and Asia in 2020.

While the pandemic slowed the expansion plans of many airlines, the start of its Haneda service shows that Vistara is still on the flight path that it has set for itself.

The airline has reached out to the authorities for permission to commence operations to the US. It has already launched operations to London and Frankfurt. Before the pandemic broke, the airline flew to international destinations including Singapore, Dubai and Bangkok.