Vistara to induct Boeing 737 aircraft owned by Jet Airways, likely to absorb a few pilots of embattled airline

Vistara, the Tata-SIA Airlines joint venture, is expected to induct some of the Boeing 737 aircraft in its fleet which were previously owned by the temporarily grounded Jet Airways, said media reports. According to The Times of India, the full-service  carrier reportedly interviewed a few B737 pilots of Jet Airways and offered to take them on board besides planning to induct some of the Boeing 737s to increase its fleet strength. Vistara currently has Airbus A320 in its narrowbody fleet and for wide-body, it has placed a firm order for six Boeing 787 Dreamliner 787-9 and has four of them on option, the report said. As part of expanding its network, Vistara is reportedly planning to increase its staff strength and will conduct the recruitment process this week in Mumbai, said a Moneycontrol report. [caption id=“attachment_2766448” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “Vistara will undertake a short differences training for pilots, crew and engineers to comply with its standards and will be in operation soon,” the report said quoting a senior industry executive. Early this month, Vistara had announced the addition of 14 new flights in the domestic network, starting 7 April. The proposed additional services were on Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad from Mumbai besides on the Hyderabad-Pune routes to meet the demand during the peak travel season in the April-July period. Last month, Vistara got the government approval to fly on international routes. Civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said that Vistara had been authorised to mount international flights now. The airline may launch its inaugural international flight to Colombo in a couple of months, a PTI report said. Early last month, Vistara Airlines had announced to start daily flights from Dibrugarh in Assam to Bagdogra in West Bengal from 3 April this year. Moreover, from 3 April, the airline stated that the same aircraft would then head to Delhi daily, making it a Dibrugarh-Delhi flight via Bagdogra. In February this year, The Tata-SIA joint venture and Japan Airlines announced a codeshare pact from 28 February, making it the fourth such tie-ups for the youngest full-service domestic carrier, said a PTI report. Vistara already has similar tie-ups with British Airways, Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary and SilkAir. Vistara and the Japanese flag carrier already have an interline/through check-in partnership and the two airlines had signed an initial agreement in September 2017 to pursue commercial opportunities together, Vistara said in a statement Friday. — With PTI inputs