Our Fleet Is Young, Efficient & Technologically Advanced: Vinod Kannan, CEO, Vistara
Vistara is focused on direct connectivity to international destinations and expanding its fleet while keeping a close watch on costs and profitability says Vinod Kannan, CEO, Vistara. Excerpts:
On growth factors and future strategies
Today, we operate over 300 flights every day, on more than 50 domestic routes connecting 32 destinations in India and 20-plus routes across 16 international destinations. Currently, we have deployed approximately 35 per cent of our capacity on international routes, which we plan to grow in the coming months. We recently inaugurated direct flights on two routes, namely Mumbai-Frankfurt and Delhi-Hong Kong. We will also be connecting Delhi and Bali starting December 1, 2023.
On plans for enhancing connectivity within India and internationally
With the increasing preference for non-stop direct connectivity, Vistara is very strongly positioned in the market, especially with more wide-body aircraft joining the fleet soon. We offer direct connectivity to 9 international destinations from Delhi and 12 from Mumbai.
On fleet capacity and future expansion
We have also grown our fleet to 63 aircraft today, which includes 48 Airbus A320neo, 10 Airbus A321neo and 5 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. We aim to have a fleet of 70 aircraft by mid-2024 which will help us further spread our wings in India as well as internationally. Our entire fleet is young, efficient and technologically advanced.
On addressing challenges and maintaining competitive edge & profitability
High taxes, volatility in fuel prices and falling value of rupee against dollar continue to put pressure on the airlines’ bottom line, and the story is no different for Vistara. To tackle this, we try to control our non-customer facing expenses and constantly try to make our cost structure leaner, through innovative approaches and prudent use of technology. We believe our strategy is working for us as we managed to increase our operating revenue by 125 per cent while our operating losses almost halved, year-on-year, in FY23.
