Vistara's first Airbus A320neo VT-TNB on its maiden commercial flight.
Vistara's first Airbus A320neo VT-TNB on its maiden commercial flight. Picture by Devesh Agarwal. All rights reserved.

Vistara orders six Boeing 787-9 and and 50 Airbus A320neo

The Tata-Singapore Airlines airline Vistara has signed letters of intent to place firm orders with Boeing for six 787-9 Dreamliner and with Airbus for 13 A320neo family aircraft. Vistara also has options for an additional four Dreamliners.

The order is worth $3.1 billion at list prices, though aircraft manufacturer extend massive discounts.

In keeping with their existing fleet mix, the engines for the A320s will be the CFM International LEAP 1-A, and for the Dreamliner 787-9s it will be the GE GEnx-1B. CFM is a joint venture of GE and Safran (formerly Snecma).

The airline will also lease an additional 37 A320neo family aircraft from various leasing companies. The airline currently operates a fleet of 21 A320 aircraft. 13 are the classic CFM56 engine and eight are neo powered by the CFM LEAP 1-A engine.

The use of the term “A320 family” aircraft leads us to believe the Vistara may opt for one of the variants of the A320, like the longer A321neo which has a long range version and a higher seat density version.

The Airbus narrow-bodies will be delivered over four years starting in 2019, while the Boeing Dreamliners will be delivered during 2020 and 2021.

Vistara currently flies over 800 flights a week to 22 destinations. It recently crossed the one crore (10 million) passengers milestone.

The 787-9 will allow the airline to fly to some US destinations non-stop from its New Delhi hub. It will also allow the airline to fly non-stop to Australia, though this would poach on to one of the more lucrative markets of its parent Singapore Airlines.

About Devesh Agarwal

A electronics and automotive product management, marketing and branding expert, he was awarded a silver medal at the Lockheed Martin innovation competition 2010. He is ranked 6th on Mashable's list of aviation pros on Twitter and in addition to Bangalore Aviation, he has contributed to leading publications like Aviation Week, Conde Nast Traveller India, The Economic Times, and The Mint (a Wall Street Journal content partner). He remains a frequent flier and shares the good, the bad, and the ugly about the Indian aviation industry without fear or favour.

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