Vistara reveals A321neo lie-flat business class
The Indian airline seeks to carve out its own premium space in a competitive and growing market.
By David Flynn, July 28 2020
Vistara's newly-delivered Airbus A321neo will introduce lie-flat business class into a competitive and fast-growing market.
A joint venture between Singapore Airlines and India's Tata Group, the Delhi-based Vistara plans for six leased A321neo jets which will fly on short- to medium-range international routes of up to seven hours, complementing six longer-range Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners which began arriving in March 2020 with London and Australia in their sights.
Vistara will bolster its fleet with six Airbus A321neo jets.
Vistara's A321neo business class features 12 leather-clad seats supplied by Collins Aerospace, arranged in three rows of two-across. The seats will be familiar with many United Airlines passengers, as they're the same as appeared on most United jets in the pre-Polaris era.
Vistara's fully-flat A321neo business class.
Vistara lists the pitch as 63 inches; each seat is 20 inches wide (you can gain another two inches by lowering the armrest), and the length of the lie-flat bed is between 82-84 inches depending on the specific seat's location in the cabin. Each passenger gets a 16" monitor controlled by a touchscreen handset.
The 24 premium economy seats are located in their own cabin, but with the same 3-3 layout as economy (152 seats) this is more of an 'economy plus' offering where you get some extra legroom and recline.
Vistara's A321neo premium economy class is more like 'economy plus'.
Vistara says its Airbus A321neo premium economy seats have a 33" pitch and a 4.5" recline, compared to the 28-29" pitch and 3" recline of standard economy seats.
Premium economy and economy passengers have their own 10" video screen, and every A321no seat from tip to tail has both USB and AC power outlets and paid access to satellite WiFi.
"This new addition to our fleet reinforces our long-term commitment to international expansion plans, despite the challenges of the current times," said Vistara CEO Leslie Thng.
"The new cabin products on our A321neo aircraft truly complement our promise of providing a premium and world-class flying experience to travellers from and to India."
Singapore Airlines' regional arm SilkAir will be upgrading its Boeing 737s to fully-flat beds.
Singapore Airlines has yet to begin rolling out its own fully-flat beds onto the regional Boeing 737 fleet of SilkAir, having opted for Thompson Aero's popular Vantage design, which has gained single-aisle cred via US carrier JetBlue’s Mint premium cabin and FlyDubai and was most recently selected by Aer Lingus for its Airbus A321LR jets.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
30 Jul 2015
Total posts 108
It is not Singapore Airlines' Vistara. It's just Vistara. Also, they are not introducing Premium Economy, their Airbus aircraft have always had this.
It's like saying Delta's Virgin Atlantic
29 Jul 2020
Total posts 1
The lie flat design seems a little awkward for the window passenger. If the aisle passenger is lying down, does the window passenger have a way to step out, or will they have to jump over the aisle passenger?
31 Mar 2014
Total posts 378
You have to feel for the people in the back of the bus. 7 hours at 28" pitch on a narrow body will not be fun.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 May 2013
Total posts 138
For the more knowledgeable ET readers, would this have the range to do MAA-SYD or BNE? BOM-MEL? (As in any port in india to east coast Aus?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
20 Aug 2014
Total posts 157
28 inch pitch in economy? Is that for real? Yikes. No thanks.
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