Vistara stood out by empowering frontline employees: Chairman Bhaskar Bhat

Its 'differentiation' was dealing with customers inside and outside aircraft, he says

Vistara stood out from other Indian carriers like IndiGo because it empowered frontline employees to solve passengers’ problems and provide a premium service, said its Chairman Bhaskar Bhat on Wednesday.

Vistara, which started commercial flight operations 10 years ago, is going to sunset on November 11 and will merge with Air India. The Tata group runs the two airlines.

"If you look at aircraft of various airlines, they are by and large the same. Vistara does not fly you faster from Mumbai to Delhi than anyone else. The seats are, by and large, the same, except business class where the seats are much larger and can be reclined," said Bhat.

"Even the premium economy class we introduced in Vistara was not exactly innovative as it was done by airlines across the world. It is not innovative. Certainly, the innovation and the change we did at Vistara was empowering the frontline," he said during a panel discussion at a symposium organised by Indian Foundation for Quality Management in New Delhi.

When frontline employees, such as cabin crew and those who handle ground operations, are not empowered and informed, they are unable to tell passengers the reasons for a simple flight delay. "This leaves the customer so irritated, and the employee at the frontline has no information, has no power. So the simple thing we did was empower the frontline because as the ambassador of the airline, these persons are delivering the experience," Bhat explained.

"It doesn't mean the employee should write out a cheque saying ‘I'll give you a free ticket’. It is about dealing with the customer problem now (at that moment). So in a way, Vistara has managed to reach a certain level of customer experience, which is about service inside the aircraft, to the extent possible outside the aircraft. We designed this differentiation into our service...Otherwise what is the difference between IndiGo and Vistara? IndiGo has differentiated itself by becoming the lowest cost airline in the country."

The Tata group in November 2022 started merging Vistara into Air India, 10 months after it took control of the latter from the government through the disinvestment process. Vistara operates about 2,400 flights weekly and has a fleet of 70 planes.

Vistara has been a loss-making airline since its birth. In 2022-23, the airline recorded a net loss of Rs 1,393 crore. Since its inception in 2015, Vistara, which is a 51:49 joint venture between the Tata group and Singapore Airlines, has seen an infusion of Rs 9,900 crore.

Bhat said the Indian aviation sector has made flying affordable. "When you fly from Bombay to Delhi or Bangalore to Delhi, you pay five rupees, 70 paisa per kilometre when you fly Vistara and it is less for IndiGo. That is less than what you pay per kilometre in an auto. So India has managed to deliver to the common man," he noted.

He mentioned that the "chalta hai (anything goes)" attitude is due to an economy driven by consumption and not necessarily by innovation. "To push companies towards innovation, it needs leadership...So we are in that trap, in a way, and thankfully, we are coming out of that trap. And if I were to look at the Global Innovation Index's pecking order, it is very clear that there is a correlation between economic development and innovation."