On an endeavour to offer their customers the best
Vistara remains committed to its long-term expansion plans, which are to densify its domestic network and expand globally. As a relatively young airline, it has been nimble in its approach since the early stages of the journey which has rewarded the airline in many ways. TTJ speaks with Vinod Kannan, Chief Commercial Officer, Vistara, to know more about the latest developments at Vistara.
Although the aviation business is far from reaching normalcy, a gradual but steady improvement is being observed in traffic and overall passenger confidence. Insights of Vistara’s customer survey concluded in June 2020 have given them great confidence, which revealed that 65 per cent of the respondents expected to take their next Vistara flight before December 2020. 25 per cent of them indicated that they would fly to visit their friends and relatives, while 35 per cent of the respondents expected to fly for business.
Even globally tourism is slowly gaining momentum with several countries opening their borders for tourists. The list of countries entering into ‘transport bubble’ pacts with India is growing as well, enabling travel for business, VFR and in some cases, even leisure. Vistara is already operating special non-stop flights to Dubai and London while they are reviewing the opportunity to operate similar flights to Paris and Frankfurt.
“Today, the entire industry has come together to rebuild passenger confidence in flying, which is already showing positive signs and helping fuel demand. At Vistara, our campaign #FlyingFeelSafeAgain, aimed to generate awareness about air travel being the safest mode of travel, has been very well received. We have also been in constant touch with our customers to inform them about the safety measures and other customercentric initiatives to generate awareness while focusing on their feedback and suggestions,” explains Vinod.
Following the COVID-19 outbreak, there has been a natural focus on stepping up safety and hygiene measures across various touchpoints. Vistara’s survey had also revealed that fear of exposure during air travel is one of the key concerns among travellers. Hence, in a postpandemic world, the touchless feature is going to play a key role in ensuring safety throughout the passenger’s journey and will be a deciding factor for the customers to choose an airline.
At Vistara, they were already on their digital transformation journey which has only been fast-tracked due to the pandemic. Initiatives taken by Vistara like scan and fly, Self-tagging, self-baggage drop, self-boarding, e-gates, biometrics/face recognition and e-boarding passes are all touchless solutions which will go a long way to build confidence in flying.
Also, for long-haul international flights, travellers now increasingly prefer to fly nonstop to their destinations to avoid exposure. This is another opportunity for Vistara, as they aim to connect more international destinations with direct flights to/from India.