Explained: How Vistara Changed The Indian Aviation Industry

Vistara Airlines will bid adieu to the skies at midnight today after being operational in India for 3,594 days. As the Tata-SIA joint venture is inching towards its final moments, here’s a look at the journey of the flight carrier in a glimpse.

Introduction of Premium Economy

The airline introduced the Premium Economy to cater to the requirement of domestic fliers. By doing a detailed study it introduced 16 Business class seats, 36 Premium Economy and only 96 economy class seats. However, the formation was later changed to 8 Business, 24 Premium Economy and 126 economy class seats. It further made few changes by introducing 1 more row in the economy seats by making it 132 for the A320neo.

Following its merger with Air India, the aircraft will be reconfigured by introducing premium economy. Notably, when Air India was operated by the government, it had the best in class legroom in the economy class. However, after the merger the legroom offered in the economy class will be compressed and a similar legroom will thereby be offered in a higher class.

787-9

In India Vistara became the first and the only air carrier to order and operate 787-9 Dreamliner. Notably, this particular widebody aircraft encompassed the Premium Economy cabin in the country.

Fleet renewal

Go Air (later renamed Go FIRST) and IndiGo were opting to go for a fleet renewal plan. Issues with Pratt & Whitney engines eventually prompted Go FIRST in blaming the engines. On the other hand, IndiGo installed the older generation A320ceo.

Featuring CFM-powered A320neos, Vistara was the first airline in the Indian companies, which was later joined by Akasa Air.

Profits remained elusive

After the collapse of Jet Airways, Vistara experienced tremendous growth even during the pandemic. However, this vivid memory was only short lived as even after 9 years of operation, the airline was unable to report profits.

Concluding Note

Operating about 5.26 lakh flights until September in 2024, the airlines carried 7.3 crore passengers, of which 90% of them were in domestic sectors.

The closure of Vistara seems like the grounding of Jet Airways, and Kingfisher Airlines, however its scenario is similar to that of Indian Airlines which shut by merger rather than for other reasons. Following the merger, the Vistara aircraft will be numbered differently with AI2xxx.