)
Tata-SIA joint venture airline Vistara, which is all set to take wings from Friday with flights connecting Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, is expected to take delivery of its third Airbus A-320 aircraft this week.
Interestingly, the full service carrier's launch coincides with the concluding day of the the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations scheduled to be held in Gujarat's capital city Gandhinagar, near Ahmedabad, from January 7 to January 9.
It will be followed by the seventh edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit, taking place in Gandhinagar only from January 11 to January 13.
The airline currently has two leased A-320s and is slated to induct the third of the five aircraft planned for this fiscal. Its original plan was to take the deliveries in October last year but had to defer it due to the delay in securing its flying licence or the Air Operator Permit (AOP).
"The airline will be taking delivery of the third A-32O plane by this week. Besides, one more aircraft is expected to join the fleet by this month end," a source close to the development told PTI here.
Vistara now plans to complete the induction of the remaining three aircraft in the fleet by next month, with two coming this month itself, they said. All the five planes are being leased by the airline from Singapore-based lessor, BOC Aviation.
A text message sent to Vistara did not yield any response.
Vistara, in which Tata Sons holds 51 per cent stake and Singapore Airlines the rest, has already announced the launch of its services between Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Ahmedabad and Mumbai-Ahmedabad from January 9.
Vistara will operate flights from its Delhi base to Goa, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Jammu and Patna in the first year, the airline had stated in the plan.
It plans to operate 87 flights in the first year, with five leased Airbus A-320s, and then scale it up to 301 flights by the fourth year with a fleet of 20 planes of the same make.
