India’s full-service airline Vistara will soon add another international route between Mumbai and Dhaka to its network. This follows the airline as it begins the Mumbai-Abu Dhabi service, which continues to grow in a post-pandemic recovery period.
Flights Mumbai-Dhaka
Vistara will offer a direct service between Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (DAC) in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. Flights begin November 15 with two flights in a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Flight UK 183 departs Mumbai at 07:35 and lands in Dhaka at 11:00 local time. Return flight UK 184 departs Dhaka at 12:00 and lands in Mumbai at 14:45. According to the airline’s website, Vistara will use an Airbus A320 for this more than three-hour flight.
A return flight on the route will cost passengers around £19,500 ($235). The new service will be in addition to Vistara’s direct flight to Dhaka from Delhi (DEL) using an A321 aircraft.
Photo: Airbus
International expansion
Vistara has expanded its international reach to many destinations in Europe and the Middle East. It recently started operations between Mumbai and Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH). The three-hour flight made Vistara the first airline to offer Premium Economy Class seating on this route, alongside its Economy and award-winning Business Class. The route is served once a day, with one aircraft departing and returning to BOM daily.
Photo: Vistara
To enhance its product on some of its long-haul destinations to Europe, the airline also introduced live TV on its two Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The new service is a first for an Indian airline and currently offers two sports channels and three news channels.
A Vistara spokesman had previously told the Times of India:
“Live TV is currently available on our Dreamliner and we plan to expand it to other aircraft in our fleet in the coming months. The live streaming started just before the ICC [International Cricket Council] T20 World Cup, which starts in Australia on October 16.”
start-up of operations
Vistara is in a fleet and network expansion mode with currently 52 active aircraft in its fleet. The airline celebrated its 50th aircraft milestone in June this year and its CEO, Vinod Kannan, is confident that Vistara will have 70 aircraft in its fleet by the end of 2023.
The airline recently decided to hire pilots from another airline under the Tata brand – AirAsia India. Vistara is facing a pilot shortage and AirAsia India currently has more pilots than it needs for the next few months after shutting down operations.
Photo: Airbus.
In an agreement that works for both airlines, it has emerged that Vistara will deploy captains and first officers on secondment from AirAsia India to meet the needs of its growing fleet.
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