Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, has appointed Vinod Kannan as Chief Strategy Officer, says a statement released by the airline. He will take charge from June 2019.
Vinod Kannan is currently the Chief Commercial Officer of Scoot, a no-frills carrier operated by Singapore Airlines. Vistara’s current Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer is the former SpiceJet Executive Sanjiv Kapoor. Even after Kannan’s induction, Kapoor will remain in his role in the company.
As Vistara accelerates its growth and prepares to take the next leap in its journey of becoming a global brand, certain changes have been introduced in the leadership structure. Strategy and commercial are cornerstones of any airline’s business, and these two areas will be bolstered to ensure focus on key priorities,” Vistara said in a statement.
According to reports, splitting of Chief Strategy Officer role between two people is made on the notion that each one will get more focus on his area of operation. While Kannan will look at the strategy such as network planning and industry partnerships, Kapoor is expected to take the responsibilities associated with pricing, revenue management, customer experience, sales, distribution, etc.
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Vistara will receive wide-body aircraft Boeing 787s from January 2020. Vistara has recently announced its plan to venture to international operations by October this year. Earlier this month, there were reports of Vistara planning to acquire aircraft from the fleet of grounded Jet Airways’ to support its international routes. Vistara is launching daily long-haul flights to Europe and North America.
After flag carrier Air India, Jet Airways was the only airline that offered direct flights to Europe and North America. With Jet Airways grounded and Air India facing financial threats and shortage of crew members to operate long-haul flights, Vistara may find this as a perfect opportunity to launch long-haul flights and capture the space that had opened up in the segment.
