Vistara announces launch of Delhi-Kathmandu daily direct flights from 11 February; introductory return fare starts at Rs 9,999

Vistara, India’s full-service carrier and a joint venture of Tata group and Singapore Airlines, on Tuesday announced the launch of daily services between Delhi and Kathmandu, starting 11 February.

Kathmandu will be Vistara's fifth international destination after the airline launched its global operations in August last year, the airline stated in a release.

Vistara will operate daily flights between Delhi and Kathmandu and the bookings for which opened on Tuesday with introductory return fare starting at Rs 9,999.

Representational image. Reuters

Accordingly, the flight will depart from Delhi at 2 pm and will reach Kathmandu at 4.15 pm daily. In return, the flight will depart Kathmandu at 5.15 pm and reach Delhi at 6.45 pm, according to Vistara website.

"We are happy to launch services to Kathmandu. The timing could not have been any better, as Nepal recently kick-started its global tourism campaign, ‘Visit Nepal Year 2020' and prepares to welcome two million tourists this year.

"These factors make Kathmandu a promising addition to Vistara's growing network," Leslie Thng, Chief Executive Officer, Vistara, said.

With a vast domestic route network in India, Vistara, which recently celebrated its fifth year of domestic operations, customers can take one-stop connections to/from Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune among other cities, it added.

Vistara commenced its commercial operations in January 2015. The airline now connects 34 destinations, operates over 200 flights a day with a fleet of 32 Airbus A320 and 7 Boeing 737-800NG aircraft.

On Monday, Vistara said that it started phasing out nine Boeing 737 planes, which it had leased after the grounding of Jet Airways, from this month amid induction of the latest batch of A320 neos in the fleet.

The airline is returning two of these nine leased B737 from January and the rest seven will be exited the fleet between 2022-23 as they are on long term lease.

A Vistara spokesperson said that by the time Vistara phases out all these leased Boeing planes, it would induct more than 50 narrow-body and wide-body aircraft in its fleet from Airbus and Boeing additionally.

— With PTI inputs