It's been a couple of months since this
airline took to the Indian skies; a joint venture between the Tata Group and
Singapore Airlines. I heard mixed reviews from "OK - it's new" to
"the new best thing to happen in Indian aviation ". As Buddha kind of said; second hand knowledge or experience equals zero - I had to
experience to gauge for myself. Would it match the high standards of "Kingfisher" service?
When it had started and for quite a few years thereafter; Kingfisher was my
absolute favourite. With that thought, ticket booked for the BOM AMD BOM sector
- a short 1 hour flight. Vistara sells itself as a premium full service carrier, but pricing is quite competitive as yet. Its flight code is UK.
It uses the Mumbai's GVK-CSIA terminal T2 (at Sahar) as it's operating base. For now; it's the only private domestic carrier operating to Indian destinations from this terminal - all others use Terminal T1 at Santa Cruz. Closer to my office I thought and so much better compared to terminal
T1 - even after all the improvements there. In my mind, T2 is one of the best terminals
found anywhere in the world and proud that it beats the IGI Delhi
terminal T3 in look - feel - fit- finish. Check-in and baggage drop happens at the
Departure level and security check a level below. Counters are well manned but
did not experience the process on account of the well constructed user friendly web-check in on
its site www.airvistara.com . Web-check-in starts 48hrs before flight and is open to all classes. Good thing is that you can block your seat right at the time of buying the ticket. Baggage allowance 15kgs - Grrr. By year end 2015; once the entire terminal and additional gates are ready; most domestic carriers flying
out of T1 will shift to T2 and the airport looks ready to receive the hordes of domestic passengers. Vistara being a Tata company must have had the advantage of using T2 first thanks to its partner GVK - the operator of the Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. www.csia.in
The gate management is pretty good and boarding very organized. The aircraft - the latest generation airbus A320 (with sharklets) smells new and feels new. Obviously cleaning very good. Arranged in 3 class configuration: Business 2-2 (16 seats); Premium Economy 3-3 (36 seats); Economy 3-3 (96 seats) total seating 148 seats is what I would assume. The only difference between premium and regular economy seems to be the seat pitch. The pitch is quite generous in economy class too - much better than Jet and Indigo. Toilets were spotless. The cabin crew looks smart in the purple attire and seem to have been well trained. 
Flight takes off on time and lands at Ahmedabad on time too. Grouse if any - the food pack. Not that I was offended by the purple box or the plastic cutlery - which may be prompted by principles of recycling, hygiene and eliminating the use of water for cleaning trays and whatever. But, I really thought the food provided by Taj-Sats (another Tata-SIA JV) sucked. The dessert tasted totally synthetic reminding me of some pineapple flavoured vitamin tonic I used to have growing up. No hot (or cold)beverage served in economy. Maybe on account of flight duration. Bottled water is served before take off and along with meals; but if you want more just ask. My second complaint is the training of the ground staff at Ahmedabad airport - the lady making announcements had no clue what she was saying. She mixed up flight numbers (there were 2 Vistara departures happening within minutes of each other); called evening morning and her tone was a reminder of railway announcements. I tweeted all this to @airvistara just to see how the airline would react. No reaction. Indigo and Jet score over Vistara here. In flight magazine - not too impressed; but it's new. Load factor BOM AMD for a 3.25pm flight barely 30% overall with just 1 or 2 seats in both business and premium econony occupied. AMD BOM 5.25pm flight 55% load factor with about 90% of passengers in economy.
Returning back to Mumbai T2 - exit the aero -bridge and walk right to the luggage pick up area.Baggage carousel number announced on board. The terminal does have one drawback though. If you are being picked up by your own transport, then it has to pay a hefty parking fee even if it has entered the terminal for a couple of minutes. But what the heck. It's a small price to pay for the brilliant infrastructure created for an almost hassle free experience.
Some 45 years ago; Air India was owned by the Tatas and it was rated as one of the finest in the world. Singapore Airlines (SIA); a fledgling start up at that time sought inspiration and training from Air India. The Air India of today is not a patch of what it was under the Tata flag while SIA has established itself as a hallmark in the aviation circles. Some 12 years back; Tata along with SIA made a bid to buy back the airline from the government of India - and failed. I would say providential that it did fail because it has now got a fresh start with Vistara to groom a world class airline that India can be proud of.
