Vistara aircraft. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Optimising its network, Air India on Wednesday said it will deploy erstwhile Vistara’s A320 planes that offer the best narrow-body cabin products on five key metro-to-metro routes, including Delhi-Mumbai and Mumbai-Hyderabad.

The Tata Group-owned airline, which has embarked on an ambitious transformation journey, will continue to operate one flight with a wide-body plane each between Delhi and Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad. Either a Boeing 777 or Airbus A350 aircraft will be deployed for the services.

Full-service carrier Vistara, which was well regarded for its services, was merged with Air India earlier this month, and providing a choice to passengers at the time of booking, flights operated with Vistara aircraft have their numbers starting with the prefix ‘AI2’.

In a release, Air India said flights on five metro-to-metro routes will be operating with erstwhile Vistara’s A320 series aircraft having a three-class configuration – business, premium economy and economy class.

The routes are Delhi and Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bengaluru, and Mumbai and Hyderabad.

The carrier offers more than 1,000 weekly flights (round trips) on these key routes – “56x daily on Delhi-Mumbai, 36x daily on Delhi-Bengaluru, 24x daily on Delhi-Hyderabad, 22x daily on Mumbai-Bengaluru, and 18x daily on Mumbai-Hyderabad”.

In terms of seats, the airline will offer 35,000 premium seats – premium economy and business – every week on these routes.

Currently, Air India has a fleet of 208 planes, including around 67 wide-body aircraft.

The airline said flight schedules will be optimised so that departures are spread out throughout the day, without reducing frequency.

“The merger of Vistara into Air India has unlocked many new opportunities to improve our customer offering. By combining the strengths of both full-service carriers, we are able to consolidate our best narrow body offering on routes where there is a desire for a high frequency, full-service product,” Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson said.

“We will progressively expand the coverage to more routes as Air India inducts new aircraft and completes the retrofit of our legacy narrow body fleet during 2025,” he said.