Vistara launches Delhi-Patna flight

PATNA: Full service carrier Vistara’s maiden flight between Patna and Delhi commenced on Sunday.
The flight (UK- 715/ 716) reached Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) Airport in Patna at 8.18pm with 140 passengers on board. Upon its arrival, the aircraft was welcomed with water canon salute, followed by welcoming ceremony to the passengers at the arrival gate by the airline executives.
After 37 minutes halt at Patna airport, the aircraft left for Delhi at 8.55pm with 138 passengers on board.Vistara is flying Airbus A320 with 146-seater aircraft on this route.
The scheduled time for flight’s arrival is 7.55pm, it was delayed by about 23 minutes due to smog in Delhi.
The airline wrote on its Twitter account on Sunday: “We are excited to inaugurate daily direct flights to Patna from Delhi, starting today (sic).” The airline, which began operations in 2015, is now operating in 30 cities and has a fleet of Airbus A320s and Boeing 737-800s.
The airline’s executives at Patna airport told this newspaper that the flyers’ response were positive. “The flight was almost full on its arrival as well as on its departure,” they said.
Vistara has set up it’s ticket counters and customer services near the arrival gate of the terminal building.
There are total 28 flights to Delhi from Patna. Of which, IndiGo is operating eight flights on this route while GoAir has seven flights besides Air India and SpiceJet having three each.
Patna airport is presently handling 50 flights — 20 of IndiGo, 12 each of GoAir and SpiceJet and six of Air India. The city airport have direct flights to ten destinations, including Lucknow, Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Ranchi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Amritsar and Chennai.