Vistara inducts 21st plane into its fleet, becomes eligible to fly overseas

Full-service carrier Vistara on Thursday inducted the 21st aircraft into its fleet, becoming eligible to fly overseas after commencing operations over three years ago.

The airline -- a joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines -- began operations on January 9, 2015.

In a release, Vistara said its 21st aircraft, an A320 neo plane landed at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport at 0336 hours on Thursday.

"There's great excitement among all of us at Vistara, as we prepare ourselves for taking the next leap in our journey to fly international. The arrival of our 21st aircraft makes this phase even more special," Vistara CEO Leslie Thng said.

"It enables us to strengthen our network further, which gives us the opportunity to offer more choices in terms of frequencies to our ever-growing base of loyal customers," he added.

According to the airline, the new aircraft would be deployed to further strengthen its domestic network.

Under the current norms, a domestic airline having a fleet of at least 20 aircraft is eligible to fly on foreign routes.

When Vistara started operations, only those carriers that have been in operation for five years and with a minimum of 20 planes were allowed to fly overseas. This norm was done away with in 2016.

Vistara would become the fifth local airline and third full service carrier to operate overseas flights. Two full service airlines -- Air India and Jet Airways -- as well as budget carriers -- IndiGo and SpiceJet -- flies to foreign destinations.

Vistara's A320 neo aircraft comes in its unique cabin configuration of 158 seats (8 Business Class, 24 Premium Economy and 126 Economy Class).

Currently, New Delhi-based Vistara operates over 800 flights per week to 22 destinations across India.