‘Aviation industry needs to find innovative solutions collectively’

The nature of travel has undergone tremendous transformation post the pandemic. Customers’ priorities have changed, with factors such as safety and hygiene taking centre-stage. Increased preference for direct connectivity to avoid exposure and due to fear of dynamically changing restrictions, especially on long-haul routes, is perhaps one of the most prominent travel trends that have emerged from the pandemic. Another significant behavioural change has been the rapid adoption of technology. There has been a significant increase in web check-ins in the past two years which also m akes ground operations significantly more efficient for the airlines. People are also increasingly adopting online, self-service tools for end-to-end transactions including booking of ancillary services and more.

Full-service carrier Vistara, India’s highest-rated airline on Skytrax and TripAdvisor as also the winner of several ‘Best Airline’ awards besides being lauded for cabin cleanliness and safety standards, has been among the first ones to introduce state-of-the-art infrastructure and user-friendly measures for its customers. Vistara is well-placed to cater to that requirement as more wide-body aircraft are expected to join the fleet soon. “Our flights to London, Frankfurt and Paris continue to perform well, establishing that the trend is likely to stay for the foreseeable future,” says Deepak Rajawat, Chief Commercial Officer, Vistara.

Having commenced commercial operations on January 9, 2015 with an aim to set new standards in the aviation industry in India, Vistara’s domestic market share has reached ~9 per cent, highlighting its consistent growth. “We have expanded our fleet by over 25 per cent since April 2020 taking the count to 53, including 41 Airbus A320, five Airbus A321neo, five Boeing 737-800NG and two Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. We are on course to ramp up our fleet in order to strengthen our network globally, and we expect to take the number to 70 aircraft by 2023,” he shares.

“After nearly two years of tirelessly navigating one of the worst crises ever faced by the industry, Indian aviation is showing signs of strong recovery with consistent upswing in demand for, both, domestic and international travel. As per IATA forecasts, India is on course to become the third largest aviation market globally and is expected to overtake the UK to become the third largest air passenger (international and domestic) market by 2024. For a country with a population of over 1.3 billion and less than 150 million passengers travelling by air every year, the potential of the Indian aviation market is immense. With airlines constantly evolving their offerings using digital tools, backed by robust IT infrastructure, customers can look forward to a rapid evolution of the industry in the times to come,” observes Rajawat.

For Vistara, the demand has been very encouraging. In fact, it has scaled up frequencies on several international routes, including Delhi-London, Mumbai-Singapore, Delhi-Singapore and Delhi-Bangkok to daily flights. “We are currently operating flights to / from nine international destinations including Paris, Frankfurt, London, Kathmandu, Singapore, Dubai, Dhaka, Male and Bangkok. We atre starting operations between Mumbai and Jeddah and have bolstered connectivity to Thailand with 5x weekly flights from Mumbai,” he informs.

On domestic front, Vistara has launched Coimbatore as the 31st domestic destination, connecting it with Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, and have introduced several new routes like Mumbai-Srinagar, Bengaluru-Indore, Mumbai-Indore, Mumbai-Bhubaneswar, Mumbai-Dehradun, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Bengaluru-Pune etc. 

“While we hope the demand continues to grow, it is imperative to note that the industry has entered the weakest quarter (historically) for domestic operations ie July to September, and we will have to see how the market performs. We are focussed on increasing frequencies where we already fly to and looking at other commercially viable destinations around the world. We remain committed to densifying our domestic network while introducing new routes and viable destinations to expand our presence across the country,” he says.

Sharing his views on increasing the capacity of airport infrastructure to meet the growing demand for air travel in India, he opines, “Airlines, airports and all key stakeholders in the aviation ecosystem need to come together and think about ways to effectively manage the growing demand and evolving needs of travellers in view of the market’s potential. There is also a need to rapidly invest in modern IT infrastructure across the aviation ecosystem, to not just support opening of new, future-ready airports, but also to enhance existing airports in the country. Moving ahead, the aviation industry needs to collectively find innovative solutions and look at growth plans, systems, processes, etc., with a fresh perspective.”

Rajawat says that their employees are their most important assets. “At Vistara, we have always endeavoured to build a sense of community, team spirit and ownership through consistent communication to the employees, keeping our key tenets of being Open & Transparent, Performance-driven, Innovative & Agile and Customer-centric at the centre of all things. From the very beginning, we have tried to focus on doing the basics right which include developing employee friendly policies, ensuring accessibility to leadership, clear communication, a safe work environment, etc. We try to stay abreast with the entire workforce, to understand their requirements, and meet their expectations as much as possible. For instance, we have a process to have constant dialogues with employees about their career aspirations and try to provide relevant opportunities for upskilling and reskilling,” he says.

Elaborating on the same, Rajawat continues, “Many employee-centric initiatives have played a key role in ensuring constant engagement, such as digitalisation and automation of key processes like regular monthly HR connects, a digital L&D calendar, internal job posting programme, objective appraisals, quarterly R&R events, etc. Development and continuous growth of our employees are taken very seriously at Vistara and we incessantly work towards cultivating a collaborative framework to cohesively achieve and celebrate goals. Vistara offers an enabling culture that helps its employees to grow with the organisation.” 

In terms of product and service attributes, Vistara offer the experience of flying state-of-the-art aircraft including Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on long-haul routes, which are known for their many passenger-centric features. “Our Airbus A321neo, on the medium/ short-haul routes, have also been getting a lot of appreciation from our customers. Vistara’s Business Class cabin products are unmatched within the domestic market and are at par with some of the biggest airlines around the world,” he says, adding that Vistara is also the only Indian airline to offer Premium Economy, a product that has gained prominence through the pandemic as customers increasingly want more convenience and space when travelling. 

The experience is further enhanced by cutting-edge inflight entertainment system – Vistara World – which enables wireless streaming on personal mobile devices, tablets etc; wi-fi connectivity on-board (on long-haul international routes); delectable inflight dining experience complemented with world-class service standards, he informs. 

“Furthermore, India’s fastest rewarding frequent flyer programme, Club Vistara, makes the experience more exciting. With a customer-centric approach, we are constantly looking to find new ways to delight our customers and enhance their experience on-board. We have always tried to differentiate ourselves in the market through intuitively thoughtful offerings like serving freshly brewed Starbucks coffee at 35,000 ft, mood lighting, plush leather seats and more. We are continuously taking feedback from our crew and customers to keep enhancing our offerings and ensuring customer delight. We are the first Indian airline to offer special ‘wellness focussed’ IFE content in association with Shyft. We have also partnered with the home-grown luxury brand, Forest Essentials to thoughtfully curate amenity kits for business class fliers on long haul flights starting August 1, 2022,” shares Rajawat.