As per reports, Vistara has recently secured the regulatory slots at Gatwick Airport, London, the speculations of the airline starting a new flight to connect Delhi to Newark have been rising. However, the securing of slots at Gatwick indicates a one-stop flight route i.e., connecting Delhi to Newark via London. If plans go concrete in the foreseeable future, it will be Vistara’s entry to the United States.
The Problem with Long-Haul Flights for Vistara
The speculation has caught attention as there are already numerous non-stop flights from India to -the United States and the airline’s decision to launch a one-stop flight could be very interesting. Vistara already has a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner as one of its carriers which is more than capable of ultra-long-haul flights. This raises the question that why the airline needs a halt in London.
The most important reason for the speculated decision is that despite being capable of long-haul flights 787-9 has a very limited crew facility. This could raise problems for the in-flight crew on a long flight. Thus, having a stopover city, in this case, Gatwick, London can be very convenient for swapping the crew for the rest of the flight.
Vistara has been already pledging various international flights in the past few years to destinations like Tokyo, Dubai, London, etc. They have also announced their operations in Paris from November of this year. However, initiating connecting flights to the US might be very challenging for the airline as Air India has already announced two more flights to the US in their already long list of direct flights between the two countries. United airlines also connect Delhi to various cities in the US and American Airlines is expected to join the competition very soon.
