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Vistara slings into Singapore
July 12th 2019
Conservative and pragmatic international debut for Indian full service carrier. Read More »
Vistara’s international debut had long been rumoured to be Thailand’s Bangkok or Phuket, Sri Lanka or even the Maldives. Instead, Vistara announced yesterday its first flights out of India would be to Singapore. It is a conservative and pragmatic choice that will directly overlap with Vistara’s 49% shareholder Singapore Airlines (SIA).
Delhi-Singapore will commence on August 6, with Mumbai-Singapore a day later. Vistara and SIA will not code-share on the India-Singapore flights, at least not yet, so SIA cannot help fill the flights. Vistara will not be partnering with SIA beyond the Changi hub.
Rather than worry about growing the market, Vistara can backfill, picking up the demand left from Jet Airways’ exit. Jet had served Singapore with up to nine daily flights, including three each from Delhi and Mumbai.
Vistara even will fly the ex-Jet Airways 737-800s it recently added to its fleet on the route. It is unclear why Vistara will use the 737 and not its own thoroughly branded A320s. Considerations could include payload, crew, regulatory requirements and capacity. The ex-Jet 737s have 12 business class seats compared with eight on Vistara’s A320s.
Additionally, Air India has down-gauged or reduced Singapore frequencies apparently due to 787 maintenance requirements. Air India’s changes and Jet’s exit exacerbated the problems of Singapore-India market which already was showing weakness with a 2% decrease in Indian visitors to Singapore through May 2019, the latest statistics from the Singapore Tourism Bureau state.
Although Vistara will fly alongside SIA, the competitive impact may be limited. Aside from product and network differences, SIA’s departures to Delhi are past midnight or late afternoon while Vistara will depart in the morning, placing it in the middle of SIA’s schedule. SIA flies to Mumbai in the morning and evening. SIA’s morning flight to Mumbai overlaps with Vistara, but the morning flight is typically higher-yielding for SIA, suggesting there may be room in this timeslot for more capacity.
Vistara will overlap with SIA’s evening departures from Delhi and Mumbai to Singapore, but these too are typically higher-yielding services for SIA.
