Vistara

Vistara is an Indian airline based in Gurgaon with its hub at Delhi-Indira Gandhi International Airport. The carrier, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, commenced operations on 9 January 2015 with its inaugural flight between Delhi and Mumbai and had carried one million passengers by December 2015. As of February 2016, the airline operates 311 weekly scheduled passenger services across 12 domestic destinations within India with a fleet of 9 Airbus A320-200 aircraft. Vistara was the first airline to introduce premium economy seats on domestic routes in India.

History

The airline was founded in 2013 as a joint venture (JV) between India's conglomerate Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines. The duo earlier made an unsuccessful bid in the mid 1990s to launch a full service carrier in India which was denied regulatory approval then by the Indian govt. With India opening up its airline sector for 49% foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2012, Tata and SIA once again decided to float a JV airline company in India. The JV, Tata SIA Airlines limited (TSAL), was envisioned as a premium full-service carrier to cater to the high-end business traveler's demands in India's civil aviation market dominated by low-cost carriers. India's Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved the JV in October 2013, allowing SIA to take a 49 percent stake in the airline. The two parent companies initially pledged to invest a combined $100 million as start-up capital, with Tata Sons owning 51 per cent and Singapore Airlines owning the remaining 49 per cent. This marked Tata's second major foray into the aviation sector after Tata Airlines in the 1930s (Tata also holds a minority stake in AirAsia India). Tata Airlines later became Air India and was subsequently nationalized.