Soon, fly abroad with Vistara, airline gets nod for overseas flights

New Delhi: Soon, you can fly overseas in a Vistara flight as the Tata-owned airline got government’s nod to fly abroad. Worth mentioning here is that it is the first private carrier to get nod for overseas flights under the amended rules. In 2016, the Narendra Modi government changed the 5/20 rule, which required an airline to complete fives years of operations and have 20 planes in its fleet, to fly abroad to 0/20.

Since Vistara, which started flying on January 9, 2015, has over 20 planes, the government set up a group of ministers to examine its application to fly abroad, the Times of India said in a report. The group of ministers has now given its nod to Vistara.

Now Vistara becomes the seventh Indian carrier to fly overseas after Air India, Air India Express, Jet, IndiGo, Spicejet and GoAir. Last year, GoAir started its overseas operations.

According to the ToI report, Vistara may start services to Colombo as bilaterals to other nearby places like Dubai, China, Qatar and Singapore are almost exhausted and India did not hike them.

“We are closely working with the ministry of civil aviation. Specific details will be shared at an appropriate time,”