Page 74 - AAA JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2017 Online Magazine

INTERVIEW VISTARA

Beating the Odds

Vistara Airlines has carved a unique
niche for itself

VISTARA AN INdIAN JOINT VENTURE OF had become a mundane chore before Vistara
Singapore Airlines (SIA) with Tata Sons entered the market.
Ltd, believe in challenging the status-quo
in the market to disrupt and bring the ‘new What will be your focus areas at Vistara?
feeling of flying’ to its customers, which Is there going to be any shift with all the
would eventually help the airline get where experiences so far?
it wants to reach in terms of gaining market We will continue to stay focused on delighting
share. As the airline enters the third year of our customers by driving innovation and
service, Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO, Vistara tells delivering excellence at every touch point.
Deputy Editor Jay Menon that the airline is One of our core values is to be intuitively
not chasing the competition, but creating thoughtful, which every Vistara employee
a unique space for itself. Excerpts from an personifies. When it percolates to services, When do you plan to achieve a full 20
exclusive interview: the difference in experience strikes our aircraft fleet size and when do we see
customers and instantly makes us win their Vistara starting international operations?
How has your journey been so far? How would hearts. We will continue to challenge the Our 20th aircraft is expected to arrive by
you rate it in the Indian market till now? status quo in the Indian market and multiply June 2018, which would make us eligible to
Vistara was born to fill the void left by our differentiators to stay ahead of the curve. fly overseas, a dream that we have been very
unfulfilled customer needs in the Indian As a nimble organization, we have never shied vocal about since Vistara’s inception. We
aviation market. We had commissioned an away from learning from our experiences, are sharpening our plans, putting together
extensive consumer research before the and have been quick in adapting to changes. the strategies and preparing ourselves for
inception of Vistara, which revealed that Any changes that we introduce are carefully the complexities that flying overseas would
today’s discerning travellers valued an evaluated, keeping our customers central to bring along and the magnitude of work this
emotional fulfilment of travel over a mere the thought. would require. We’re also simultaneously
mechanical transportation. This leads us to a working on building a network of global
quest for service excellence in order to take Could you detail plans to advance partners with interline and codeshare
our customers’ experience to a point where expansion since the passenger market agreements, which is helping us a great deal
flying feels like a ‘new feeling’. In our first year, in India is growing? Is it going to be in spreading awareness about our unique
we had flown 1 million happy customers with aggressive, the expansion plan? products and services outside the Indian
a relatively small fleet and network, which We are committed to growing our footprint borders. Having said that, we will start
was an achievement in itself. The number has in the country and this, perhaps, needs no our international operations when we are
more than tripled in the next one year. testament. We have grown to connect 20 fully ready. I would say, there’s a lot to look
Vistara has been on a growth trajectory destinations across the country in only 24 forward to for us as well as for our customers.
since its first day. Our average passenger load- months. As we proceed on our journey to
factor (PLF) in 2016 stood at 75.6 per cent. We redefining air travel in India, expansion Since you project your airline for the
have consistently recorded a high OTP (on-time will come naturally. Vistara has always corporates, is the limited network a major
performance), topping the chart for the most of believed that growth must be measured hurdle?
2016. We received the CAT III B certification in a and sustainable, which forms a combination Apart from focusing on corporate
record time and we now fly to 20 destinations of customers’ demand, commercial viability customers, we’re also equally concentrating
across the country with 13 aircraft. We have and mandatory obligations. on the needs of leisure travellers. We added
enriched our product and service portfolio and some exciting destinations to our network
introduced many innovative features to enhance And can we expect Vistara placing huge orders such as Port Blair, Srinagar and Kochi, and
our value proposition. Our journey of the last two like some other Indian carriers have done? many travellers have already made us their
years has been remarkable and very rewarding. We are gearing up to induct five Airbus A320 preferred airline for travel on these routes
To put it in a nutshell, we have transformed the neos in the next financial year, and we have for the comfort and ease they expect on a
air travel experience for millions of travellers in already announced the addition of Amritsar holiday. Moreover, with our strong ties with
India in a way that they look forward to flying in and Leh to our growing network at the start partner hotel chains across the country,
domestic skies, as against an experience that of 2017. we have also started selling flight+hotel
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