Vistara set to fly to Europe next year

Dubai: Full-service Indian carrier Vistara will take a major leap forward by starting flights to Europe from next year. The airline is eyeing London as its first destination in Europe and plans to fly to two more European cities in due course. This comes even as the airline began daily flights from Mumbai to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates from Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the airline began daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Singapore. It will also start flights in a few days to the Thai capital Bangkok.

The airline is in the midst of a major fleet expansion and will induct nine more Airbus A-320 aircraft apart from possibly 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Two more Boeing 737s will also be inducted soon into the fleet.

Vistara CEO Leslie Thng told reporters in Dubai that the carrier is growing from a small airline to a “medium-sized” one. “We are focusing on the Indian consumer,” Mr Thng said, when asked what differentiated his airline from established global carriers. He pointed out that his airline studied the market carefully before launching flights to destinations including ones abroad. “The inaugural flight from Mumbai to Dubai was full,” he said.

The Vistara CEO also said that he was confident his airline would fill the “void” caused by the folding up of another full-service Indian carrier Jet Airways.