NEW DELHI, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Vistara has put the brakes on new airplane orders whereas it awaits regulatory approval to merge with Air India, however that won’t cease the airline from including extra worldwide routes to spice up income, its chief government stated on Tuesday.

The full-service provider, a three way partnership between Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI) and India’s Tata Sons, will obtain its pending order for 17 plane by mid-2024 taking its complete fleet to 70 planes. Tata additionally owns Air India.

“We have not looked at any orders beyond that,” Vinod Kannan instructed reporters.

“There has been the announcement about the merger and integration with Air India. Once we have approval from the relevant authorities … we will have to sit down together with Air India as a joint entity to see what we do,” he stated.

But Vistara’s enlargement will proceed and the airline is “not going to scale back” due to the combination, he added.

Tata said in November it was merging its two full-service carriers – Air India and Vistara – to create a much bigger airline to tackle native rivals like IndiGo (INGL.NS) in addition to Middle Eastern carriers that dominate outbound site visitors from India.

Tata can be expected to announce on Friday a brand new airplane order of some 495 plane for Air India, Reuters reported, because it seems to be to revamp the airline beneath its possession.

Vistara, which began operations in 2015, recorded its first operational revenue within the December quarter helped by sturdy journey demand and better fares, regardless of surging gasoline prices and a weak rupee versus the greenback.

Kannan hopes to proceed the momentum and flying to extra worldwide locations is a key issue.

“International is where we are going to focus. That is where value for money comes in for Vistara,” he stated.

Vistara deploys as much as 30% of its capability on 12 worldwide routes together with cities in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. These routes contribute 30% of its income.

The airline has placed on the backburner plans to launch flights to the United States resulting from delays in receiving deliveries of its Boeing (BA.N) 787 widebody planes. It will as a substitute strengthen its presence in Europe the place it at present flies with load elements – a measure of how full its planes are – of 85% to 90%, Kannan stated.

Reporting by Aditi Shah
Editing by Mark Potter

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