India’s Vistara receives further $63.5mn boost to finances

In the fourth capital injection in Vistara (UK, Delhi Int’l) since April 2020 to bolster its finances amid the Covid-19 pandemic, co-owners Tata Sons (51%) and Singapore Airlines Group (49%) have together invested a further INR4.65 billion rupees (USD63.5 million) in the venture by issuing new shares, the Indian business data source Tofler reported. The support measure, in which 465 million new shares were issued, was made up of INR2.37 billion (USD32.4 million; for 237 million shares) from Tata Sons and INR2.28 billion (USD31.1 million; for 228 million shares) from Singapore Airlines. It followed similar injections of INR2 billion (USD27.3 million) in April 2020, INR7.5 billion (USD102.5 million) in July, and INR5.85 billion (USD80 million) in November. The funding was placed in Vistara’s operating company, New Delhi-based Tata SIA Airlines Limited. As travel demand takes another nosedive in India due to a devastating second wave of coronavirus cases, airlines there are also having to contend with higher fuel costs and intensifying competition. Tata Sons, meanwhile, is still in the running to buy Air India (AI, Mumbai Int’l). According to India’s BusinessLine newspaper, Vistara’s full-year losses for 2020 rose to INR18.13 billion (USD248 million). Vistara currently has 39 routes in operation, 32 of them domestic, the ch-aviation capacities module shows. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, it currently operates an all-leased fleet of twenty-eight A320-200Ns, eight A320-200s, two A321-200NXs, six B737-800s, and two B787-9s. A further twenty-nine A320-200Ns, four A321-200Ns, and eight B787-9s are to be delivered.