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Founded | 2013 | ||||||
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Commenced operations | 9 January 2015 | ||||||
Hubs | Indira Gandhi International Airport | ||||||
Frequent-flyer program | Club Vistara | ||||||
Fleet size | 13 | ||||||
Destinations | 18 | ||||||
Company slogan | Fly the new feeling | ||||||
Parent company | Tata Sons | ||||||
Headquarters | Level 10, One Horizon Center, Golf Course Rd, Gurgaon | ||||||
Key people | |||||||
Employees | 900 (March 2016) | ||||||
Website | www |
Tata SIA Airlines Limited, operating as Vistara, is an Indian domestic 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. The airline had carried more than two million passengers by June 2016 and as of April 2016, has a 2.3% share of the domestic carrier market. The airline operates to eighteen destinations with a fleet of Airbus A320-200 aircraft. Vistara was the first airline to introduce premium economy seats on domestic routes in India.
The airline was founded in 2013 as a joint venture (JV) between India's conglomerate Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines (SIA). The two companies had made a bid in the mid-1990s to launch a full service carrier in India that was unsuccessful, being denied regulatory approval by the Indian government. With India opening up its airline sector for 49 percent 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 envisaged as a premium full-service carrier to cater to the demands of high-end business travellers 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 US$100mn as start-up capital, with Tata Sons owning 51 percent and Singapore Airlines owning the remaining 49 percent. This was part of Tata's second major foray into the aviation sector along with a minority stake in AirAsia India. The company's first venture, Tata Airlines, was established in the 1930s and later became the flag carrier Air India after nationalization.