Coronavirus outbreak: Air India, Vistara, Singapore Airlines to reduce flights between India and Singapore

New Delhi: With India asking its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Singapore and screening passengers coming from there due to the coronavirus outbreak, flights connectivity between the two countries is now being slashed.
Air India has a daily on Delhi-Singapore-Delhi and Mumbai-Chennai-Singapore-Chennai-Mumbai sectors. “From Monday, the Delhi flight will operate five days a week and Mumbai four times. So the 14 times weekly is now nine times weekly with five flights being suspended,” said an AI official.
A Vistara spokesperson said: “We are continually reviewing the situation and due to low demand on Singapore route we are making some cancellations which will come into effect next month. Affected customers are being contacted and offered alternatives.”
GoAir is suspending Singapore flights due to slot issue. “GoAir was offered unviable time slots which we operated with an understanding that these slots will be reviewed no sooner we commence our operations into Singapore. However, despite repeated appeals GoAir was not offered any alternate slot. GoAir had no choice but to temporarily suspend its flight operations from Singapore to Kolkata from February 7, 2020, and between Singapore and Bengaluru from 08 February 8. Based on better slot offerings at commercially viable timings, GoAir remains committed to re-launch services to Singapore,” said a GoAir spokesman. IndiGo will announce on Tuesday.
24/02/20 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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United Airlines Enters Codeshare with Indian Carrier, Vistara

United Airlines has entered into a codeshare agreement with Vistara, the full-service Indian airline, to expand travel options for customers.

In addition to providing access to 68 Vistara-operated flights to 26 destinations throughout India, the codeshare also allows MileagePlus and Vistara's loyalty program members to earn and redeem miles when flying on either of the airline's route network, beginning Feb. 28.

Vistara is a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, and the carrier is preparing to grow its fleet by adding more than 50 narrow-body and wide-body aircraft, including Airbus A321neo and Boeing B787-9, in the next three years.

“The U.S. continues to be one of the biggest source markets for foreign travelers into India and the region, and this partnership allows us to provide a seamless travel offering for customers to and from the U.S.," said Vistara's Chief Commercial Officer, Vinod Kannan.
21/02/20 Daine Taylor/Travel Market Report

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Delhi airport sets Valentine's day goals with IndiGo, Vistara, SpiceJet, Air India

It is Valentine's day and the romance is literally in the air at Delhi airport. The GMR group-run airport kick-started the day with a romantic Twitter conversation with IndiGo, asking the airline to "never run away from its runway."
Excited about the capacity addition by IndiGo, whose total neo-order-book comprises 730 aircraft, the airport also added that it is looking forward to "so many future planes together."
Moving on to the national carrier Air India, the largest airport in India called the airline its "first love". Air India reciprocated and said that it is glad to have found a special place in the Delhi airport hub.
For Vistara, the joint venture of Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, the airport had a special plan. Delhi airport asked the youngest airline out on a date. Vistara, which will soon be inducting the wide-body B787 aircraft, has readily agreed to this date and has also informed the airport that it will be wearing purple for the special occasion.
The airport then sent a romantic message to the Gurugram-based low-cost carrier SpiceJet. The airline responded by telling the airport that Delhi airport is always in its heart.
14/02/20 Anu Sharma/CNBC TV18

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Vistara starts flights to Kathmandu

Vistara has added Kathmandu, Nepal as its fifth international destination. The Tata-SIA airline has started operations between New Delhi and Kathmandu, February 11 onwards.

The launch of this new service will enable passengersto have one-stop connections to and from other Indian cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune, among others.

Vistara forayed into the international airspace in August 2019 with Singapore as its first destination, followed by Dubai, Bangkok, and Colombo.

Vinod Kannan, chief commercial officer, Vistara said, “We are very happy to inaugurate services to Nepal. Travellers to and from Nepal will now experience India’s only five-star airline that’s committed to making a mark with a world-class product and unparalleled service delivery.”
12/02/20 Sanchita Nambiar/Business Traveller

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Vistara enters Uttarakhand

Vistara has added Dehradun, Uttarakhand as the 36th destination on its network. The airline will operate daily flights between Delhi and Dehradun starting March 29.

Passengers from Dehradun can also take connections through Delhi to other cities – including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Ranchi, Raipur and Varanasi – on Vistara’s network.

“Over the past decade, Dehradun has seen tremendous upswing in economic growth following the establishment of software technology parks and SEZs. We see a significant demand for a full-service flying experience on the Delhi-Dehradun route,” says Vinod Kannan, chief commercial officer, Vistara.
10/02/20 Akanksha Maker/Business Traveller

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Vistara's daily flights between Delhi-Dehradun from March

New Delhi: Full-service carrier Vistara on Friday said that it will operate daily flight service between Delhi and Dehradun from March 29.

The airline opened the bookings for the sector with an introductory all-inclusive one-way fares starting from Rs 2,499 in Economy class, Rs 4,699 in Premium economy and Rs 12,299 in Business class.

According to the airline, passengers from Dehradun can also take connections through Delhi to other cities on Vistara's network, including but not limited to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Ranchi, Raipur and Varanasi.
07/02/20 IANS/daijiworld

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Vistara and AirAsia India resist government pressure to ban Indian comedian on its flights

New Delhi: Vistara, an Indian airline owned partially by Singapore Airlines, and AirAsia India have stuck to the rulebook and not rushed in to ban an Indian comedian, defying a public advisory to do so on Twitter from Indian Civil Aviation Minister Mr Hardeep Singh Puri.

Four major carriers - IndiGo, Air India, GoAir and SpiceJet - announced a ban on Mr Kunal Kamra last week after he accosted Mr Arnab Goswami, a controversial but popular Indian television news anchor sympathetic to Bharatiya Janata Party, on an IndiGo flight on the afternoon of Jan 28.

Mr Goswami's polemical shows are a primetime platform for launching invectives at critics of the government.
Mr Kamra, a known critic of the government, had posted a video the same afternoon on Twitter, where he is seen accosting Mr Goswami, asking him whether he is a "coward" or a "nationalist" as part of a nearly two-minute monologue.

Mr Goswami, who is the editor-in-chief of Republic TV, did not respond and kept his gaze fixed on his laptop with his earphones plugged in.

That same night, IndiGo tweeted that it had banned Mr Kamra from taking its flights for six months for what it described as "unacceptable behaviour".

The airline had tagged Mr Puri in its tweet. In less than an hour, Mr Puri had retweeted the post, saying: "Offensive behaviour designed to provoke & create disturbance inside an aircraft is absolutely unacceptable & endangers safety of air travellers."
He added: "We are left with no option but to advise other airlines to impose similar restrictions on the person concerned."

Within 24 hours, the three other airlines also announcedthey had banned Mr Kamra too, tagging Mr Puri in their tweets. This prompted criticism of the four airlines for kowtowing to the government and flouting established government procedures that determine who can be banned from flying and for how long.

Vistara and AirAsia India have not yet announced a similar ban on Mr Kamra. A statement issued to The Straits Times by Vistara said the airline will "review and follow due process in such cases". AirAsia India did not respond to a request for comment.
07/02/20 Debarshi Dasgupta/Straits Times

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Vistara to start flights on Delhi-Dehradun route from Mar 29

New Delhi: Vistara on Friday announced that it will start a daily flight between Delhi and Dehradun from March 29.
Vinod Kannan, the chief commercial officer of Vistara, said, "With its close proximity to several of India's most-visited tourist destinations, Dehradun is the gateway to the state of Uttarakhand. Over the past decade, the city has seen tremendous upswing in economic growth following the establishment of software technology parks and SEZs."
07/02/20 PTI/Economic Times

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Vistara CEO assures that carrier is not changing its business model

In Indian aviation, business flexibility is the order of the day. Case in point: full-service operator Vistara, which offers three classes of service, expects to unlock value by entering smaller markets and discovering a new category of customer with all-economy Airbus A320neo operations.

But having a few all-economy configured aircraft “does not mean a change in business model, as we are not creating [a] sub-brand”, Vistara CEO Leslie Thng stressed to Runway Girl Network.

“We only have one aircraft configured in all-economy class configuration at present. It is deployed on the Delhi-Ranchi and Delhi-Udaipur routes. It is a carefully evaluated decision to have such an aircraft in our fleet considering the market dynamics.”

Service on Vistara’s 180-seat all-economy A320neo is no different than economy service on any of its regular three-class, 158-seat twinjets. “Aircraft configuration is not to be confused with business model … Vistara will be the same award-winning airline, praised for its service delivery and operational efficiency; not having two other cabins on some planes does not change how we think about our customers or treat them,” assured Thng.
This democratization of travel in India is being propelled by other forces, however. Indian operators must adhere to the government’s Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG), which require that a percentage of capacity be deployed on second and third tier routes. As regional towns and cities grow, these routes (known as Category 2 and Category 3 under RDG) are in fact becoming fewer.
04/02/20 Neelam Mathews/RunwayGirlNetwork

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You Can Now Earn & Redeem United Miles On Vistara

In 2019 United Airlines and Vistara launched a codeshare agreement, and as of February 2020 that agreement has been expanded to include the ability to earn and redeem United miles on all Vistara flights.

One thing that made this partnership so interesting is that Air India is already in the Star Alliance and a United Airlines partner, though frankly it’s nice to see an Indian alternative to the national carrier, given their lackluster service.
It’s now possible to redeem United MileagePlus miles for travel on Vistara throughout their network. Flights are bookable directly through united.com, and award availability is readily available.

Most domestic flights seem to have at least two business class award seats and four economy class award seats. These itineraries start at just 8,000 miles in economy or 35,000 miles in business class.
Award availability is more inconsistent on international flights.

United lets you mix and match partner airlines on awards, though, so you could book a connection on Vistara in conjunction with a long haul Star Alliance award. Personally I’d much rather connect to Vistara than Air India.
04/02/20 Ben/One Mile At a Time

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Why Anurag Kashyap landed seven hours early

Calcutta: Film director Anurag Kashyap landed in Calcutta seven hours before a programme scheduled for Monday evening. He did not mind.

He had to wake up at 4am for the flight. He did not mind.

“I will wake up at 4am but I will not fly IndiGo,” Kashyap told The Telegraph.

Not until “Kunal Kamra is allowed to fly”.

At the greenroom of Rabindra Bhavan in Dum Dum, where he had been invited to open a film fest, the filmmaker said: “I was booked on IndiGo by the organisers to come to Dum Dum…. After Kamra was banned, I told the organisers I will not fly IndiGo. I told them I will not fly this airline because I thought the ban was very unreasonable….

“My thing is: there is nothing I can do about it. It does not make much of a difference. But as I wanted to register my dissent, I thought that I would not fly IndiGo. I want to fly Vistara. The IndiGo flight was on Monday afternoon and the Vistara flight was in the morning. They (the organisers) informed (me) that to fly Vistara, you have to wake up at 4am. I said, ‘I will wake up at 4am, but I will not fly IndiGo’.”

At Rabindra Bhavan, around 5.30pm, the emcee introduced Kashyap as the person “who humbly declined to fly by IndiGo to show solidarity with Kunal Kamra”. The audience erupted in thunderous applause.

In his address, Kashyap, director of path-breaking films like Black Friday, Gangs of Wasseypur and Dev.D, said: “Gone are the days when artistes or even the common man could afford to be politically correct. It is time that we all took a stand against the government that does not respect you.”

Kashyap flew from Mumbai to Calcutta with Vistara on Monday.
03/02/20 Subhankar Chowdhury/Telegraph

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Kunal Kamra finally takes off on Vistara after being suspended from IndiGo, three other airlines

New Delhi: After being put on no-fly list by four domestic carriers IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air India and GoAir, comedian Kunal Kamra has finally taken off, thanks to Vistara.

Kamra was suspended by IndiGo for heckling heckling TV anchor Arnab Goswami in a Mumbai-Lucknow plane after which above carriers too put him in no-fly list. However, Vistara and Air Asia have refused to ban Kamra from flying without proper enquiry into the matter as per India's aviation laws.
New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: After being put on no-fly list by four domestic carriers IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air India and GoAir, comedian Kunal Kamra has finally taken off, thanks to Vistara.

Kamra was suspended by IndiGo for heckling heckling TV anchor Arnab Goswami in a Mumbai-Lucknow plane after which above carriers too put him in no-fly list. However, Vistara and Air Asia have refused to ban Kamra from flying without proper enquiry into the matter as per India's aviation laws.

In 2017, the Indian government had decided to set up a no-fly list with details about individuals who show unruly behaviours on aircrafts. In such as case, rules dictate that the pilot of the aircraft should file a complaint with the airline. However, in this case the airlines banned Kamra without following due process following Twitter posts by Union Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Poori urging airlines to take action.
02/02/20 Jagran

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Vistara to add widebodies?

India's Vistara is talking up the prospects of adding widebody aircraft to its fleet if it can buy slots at the UK's London Heathrow.
A report in CH-Aviation says Vistara wants to order more wide-bodied aircraft and to start flying to Europe and the United States. A Bloomberg report suggests Singapore Airlines - a 49 per cent shareholder in Vistara - wants to compete harder against Emirates in India.
By 2023, Vistara - with B787s joining the fleet - wants to have a 50/50 split between domestic and international flights.
30/01/20 micebtn

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