The last year or so saw large consultancies predict a 100 aircraft order from Vistara before the end of 2017. In the end, the order announcement came today, almost a year later and the order itself is a modest one which has seen the airline, a joint venture of TATA – SIA, give business to both Airbus and Boeing.
Vistara has placed orders for A320neo family and the B787 Dreamliner with Airbus and Boeing respectively. Airbus has bagged 13 firm orders for the A320neo family and the airline has not declared the split between the A320neo and the A321neo. Six B787-9 Dreamliner will be added to the Boeing backlog with an option for four more from the Dreamliner family which could well be the -10 version.
The airline has signed up for seven options of the A320neo/A321neo and intends to lease 37 new A320neo/A321neo aircraft from leasing companies. The Airbus aircraft will be delivered from 2019 until 2023 and will be powered by the CFM International LEAP 1-A engines which power its current fleet of A320neo. The B787s will be powered by General Electric GEnx-1B engines and will be delivered between 2020 and 2021.
The airline currently has 13 Airbus A320ceo in its fleet and eight A320neo with one on order which is due in September this year.
In March 2017, NetworkThoughts had published a blog Vistara – Setting the tone for growth where it was predicted that the airline would go for the B787-9 and could look at A321. Today’s order is in line with those predictions.
With this order, both the large manufacturers have continued the dominance in India with Airbus leading the narrow-body segment while Boeing being the leader in wide-body one.
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