Vistara, an airline joint venture of Indian conglomerate Tata group and Singapore Airlines, has added Saudi Arabia on its international network, with the launch of a direct flight to Jeddah from India’s commercial capital Mumbai on Tuesday.
Vistara’s move to connect to Jeddah comes close on the heels of another Indian airline – IndiGo – expanding its network in the Gulf sector, with the launch of a direct flight service to Bahrain from Mumbai.
IndiGo is also set to launch more flights to Bahrain from other Indian cities in October this year.
Vistara’s non-stop flights between Jeddah and Mumbai will operate thrice a week – Tuesdays, Tursdays and Saturdays.
The full service airline said it would deploy its Airbus A320neo aircraft in the sector.
The flight will depart Jeddah at 21.50 hours and reach Mumbai 05.30 hours next day, while the return flight is slated to depart at 18.05 hours and reach Jeddah at 20.50 hours.
“Given the multitude of upcoming futuristic projects in Saudi Arabia, strong trade ties with India and presence of a large Indian diaspora, there is growing traffic between the two countries,” Vinod Kannan, chief executive officer of Vistara, said.
“We are delighted to add Saudi Arabia to our growing international network,” Kannan said.
Indian carriers have been off late aggressively expanding their flight network to the Middle East, especially to the UAE, with air travel between the UAE and India registering a massive surge in demand in the recent months, fuelled by pent-up demand, Dubai Expo 2020 and pick up in leisure travel.
IndiGo also launched two additional services last month from the Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, international airport – one to Abu Dhabi and the second one to Dammam in Saudi Arabia.
According to industry data, the UAE-India sector posted a whopping 136 percent jump in air traffic in the first half of this year over the same year ago period.
The spike in air travel demand is despite a significant rise – about 17 percent in June alone – in airfares in the UAE-India sector.
A 51:59 joint venture between Tata group and Singapore Airlines, Vistara has a fleet of 53 aircraft, including 41 Airbus A320, five Airbus A321neo, five Boeing 737-800NG and two Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
The airline said it has flown more than 35 million customers since starting operation in January 2015.
Dubai is the top transit airport for Indian travellers for their onward journey to western destinations such as the US, the UK, Europe and Canada.
Follow us on
