About 65% of 6,000 consumers in a Vistara survey want to fly within 6 months

Mumbai: About 65% in a survey of 6,000 consumers done by Vistara said they would want to take a flight in six months. A majority of that chunk, 41% of the total, said they want to fly within a month the airline said sharing data from the survey.

The numbers may give some hope to the airline industry which continues to face low demand, forcing airlines to operate even lesser flights than the curtailed schedule allowed by the government. They are also forced to cancel flights last moment. Airlines are managing to fill 50%-60% of their flights on average.

Among top flying concerns, the survey showed a majority of people citing fear of exposure to the virus; others raising doubts on co-passengers’ adherence to health protocols and still others fearing high fares.

The government has currently capped fares on both ends before flying returns to normal.

Vinod Kannan, chief commercial officer at Vistara said the airline, which is operating about 40 daily flights or a fourth of its pre-Covid schedule, would watch where demand goes before increasing capacity.

He said Vistara, which started international operations just months before the pandemic, remains keen to add London to its network. He didn’t share specifics. Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, flew to Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok, Colombo and Kathmandu before the government ordered a suspension of all international flights March 22. Subsequently, on March 25, domestic operations too were suspended, only to be reopened with limited flights two months later. Scheduled commercial international operations, barring repatriation flights, special flights and charters, remain suspended