Indian airline Vistara is in talks with planemakers and leasing
companies to delay taking delivery of some aircraft, the carrier’s chief
strategy officer said on Monday, as COVID-19 hits demand for air
travel, reports Reuters.
Vistara, owned by India’s Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, placed an order for 13 A320-neo family aircraft from Airbus SE in 2018 and said it would take another 37 Airbus planes from leasing companies - all due for delivery between 2019 and 2023.
It also has six Boeing Co 787-9 Dreamliner widebody planes on order, primarily for international flights, due to be delivered in 2020 and 2021.
Delivery
of some planes have already been pushed back due to logistics issues
and production delays at the planemakers, as countries went into
lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, Vinod Kannan, chief strategy
officer at Vistara told reporters.
“We are looking to see how we
can push back some of the deliveries not just because of the delays in
production but also from a commercial perspective,” said Kannan.
Vistara,
which has a fleet of 41 aircraft, will take delivery of at least one
Boeing 787 and two other planes this calendar year, Kannan said, adding a
final decision had not been reached on how many deliveries would be
deferred.
Like
airlines around the world, Vistara is battling low demand for air
travel due to the pandemic. While India has allowed airlines to fly up
to 45% of their total capacity on domestic routes, international flights
are still banned.
Vistara is operating on domestic routes with a
third of its fleet and at a passenger load factor of 50%-60%, Kannan
said, adding that the airline is also preparing to fly to international
destinations later this year if government-imposed curbs are relaxed and
demand returns.
India’s civil aviation ministry said in June it
was in talks with the United States and some countries in Europe to
establish travel “bubbles” for international flights.
Reporting by Aditi Shah; editing by David Evans
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