Vistara to allow booking adjacent seat for social distancing

The Vistara will now allow its passengers to book two seats so that the passenger can fly with one seat besides it empty to maintain social distancing. Vinod Kannan, chief commercial and strategy officer for Vistara said that no extra will be charged for booking the one extra seat.

New Delhi: Full-service carrier Vistara on Monday said that passengers who want to fly from their airlines can now book two seats so that the passenger can fly with one empty seat adjacent to it.

"Passengers flying with us can book two seats and fly with one seat empty. No extra will be charged for booking the one extra seat, said Vinod Kannan, chief commercial and strategy officer for Vistara.

He further added that the travel agents have been informed about the scheme and it will also be rolled out on their website.

Notably, on June 15, the Bombay High Court had allowed all flight operators to fill their middle seats on flights, in compliance with the May 31 circular issued by the Civil Aviation ministry, on the condition that flyers must wear 'wrap-around' gowns and standard operating procedures issued by the DGCA are followed.

To know how the air passengers felt about flying again amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Vistara conducted a survey among and around 6,000 of their customers responded to it.

Announcing the outcomes of its survey, the airline said that the top concern of the 31% passengers was the fear of exposure to the virus during the journey while 24% passengers have concerns with fellow passengers who do not adhere to the health protocols and 15% said their main concern is high fares.

The survey said about 65% of the respondents said that they will take their next flight within the next six months, 35% of the respondents said that business was the main reason for them to travel.

Vinod Kannan said that the airline is utilising one-third of the fleet. The aircraft is 50-60% full with about 90 passengers per flight on an average and almost 60-70% passengers now book 5 to 7 days before the date of travel.

Vistara said that 20% of the survey respondents planned to take their next flight to a destination outside of India. Singapore, UK and Dubai were named most often as the destinations for the respondents' next international trip, followed by the US and Thailand.