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Vistara, the Indian private sector full-service carrier, plans to further expand its operations to the UAE with a direct daily flight to Sharjah from the Indian commercial capital Mumbai.
The proposed flight services between Sharjah and Mumbai will commence on Sunday and is scheduled to operate until March 27.
Vistara’s plans to launch direct services on the Sharjah-Mumbai route followed its direct flight services to the emirate from the Indian capital city Delhi from Wednesday.
With the proposed flight to Sharjah from Mumbai, Vistara – a joint venture of Indian conglomerate Tata Group and Singapore Airlines – will have operations to Dubai and Sharjah from the two Indian cities.
“We are delighted to inaugurate our daily services between Delhi and Sharjah, and are excited to add flights on the Mumbai-Sharjah route in the next four days,” said Vistara’s CEO Leslie Thng.
Thng also said that these flights would further strengthen Vistara’s presence in the Middle East, and offer additional options to travellers between India and the UAE.
Vistara is the only airline to offer travellers the choice of flying premium economy between India and the UAE, in addition to business and economy cabins.
Airline industry sources said Vistara’s move to ramp up its operations to Sharjah followed the UAE civil aviation authorities’ decision to re-align the total number of airline seats allowed under the bilateral ‘air bubble’ arrangement with India.
Following the recent decision, Vistara had to curtail its operations to Dubai from December 28 to just four flights per week from Delhi only, down from 14 weekly flights from Delhi and 13 weekly flights from Mumbai.
Leslie Thng, CEO of Vistara
While Vistara had to curtail its operations to Dubai, Air India Express added about 55 additional flights from various Indian cities this month.
The sister airline of India’s national carrier has also added over 40 flights to Sharjah from various cities across India for this month.
Indian budget carrier SpiceJet also announced new direct flights to Ras Al Khaimah – its new hub in the Gulf region – from Mumbai, besides increasing its flights from Delhi to four a week from twice a week earlier.
Indian carriers have been beefing up their operations to the UAE of late in the wake of a pick-up in demand for travel between the two countries, especially for tourism purposes.
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