Vistara, an airline of the Tata Group tells CNBC-TV18 that they are almost back to their pre-COVID capacity, even as it expects the pandemic impact to play out in the last quarter of FY22. CNBC-TV18’s Anu Sharma spoke to CEO Vinod Kannan and CCO Deepak Rajawat. He said that Vistara continues to compete with Air India - the new airline in the Tata stable - and will make sure that their customer base remains loyal.

“For us Air India is still a competitor. Internally, the positioning is that we still are an airline that is an independent entity and we will continue to compete with Air India and make sure that our customer base remains loyal to us,” Kannan said.

Also Read:

Government may propose 'new formula' to bring Aviation Turbine Fuel under GST ambit

Vistara saw some impact of COVID-19 in FY21 however a lot of it happened in FY22. Second wave of COVID-19 was very detrimental and then there was third wave of COVID-19 in January. “The impact of COVID-19 will still be there on this financial year. Q1 of FY22 things were very bad, Q2 and Q3 things picked up and Q4 will be determined by what happens in February and March,” Kannan added.

With COVID-19 cases numbers coming down and a lot of arrival and departure requirements are being streamlined, the indications are that the borders will be opening soon and the company is prepared for that, said Kannan.

Also Read: Air India operates flight to Ukraine; to bring back Indians amid rising tensions

In terms of long haul international flights, Kannan said that Vistara is looking at introducing a long haul flight to USA as the company is waiting for the delivery of additional aircrafts.

For the entire discussion, watch the accompanying video

Catch all stock market updates here