Vistara (UK, Delhi International) has retired its final B737-800, with the 9.97-year-old VT-TGE (msn 39061) operating its last revenue flight for the airline on July 26 from Kochi International to Delhi. Vistara has operated nine B737-800s since 2019.
The Indian airline, which has a pronounced lean towards Airbus narrowbodies, said the B737-800s had been an "integral part" of its operations. The addition of the B737-800s to the Vistara fleet occurred after the collapse of Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai International) and was an opportunistic move to meet capacity requirements while waiting for Airbus orders to arrive. But within 12 months of acquiring the Boeing narrowbodies, Vistara began exiting them. The airline was down to three B737-800s at the start of 2023, but retired VT-TGH (msn 39066) in February and VT-TGB (msn 39058) in May.
Most recently, VT-TGE had been operating UK885/886 between Kochi and Delhi and UK895/896 between Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi. Those flights will now be serviced by an A320-200N.
With the B737-800s gone, Vistara now operates a fleet of forty-six A320-200Ns, nine A321-200NX, one A321-200NX(LR), and four B787-9s. The airline also has three of the latter type still on order as well as eight A320-200Ns. Vistara is slated to merge with Air India (AI, Delhi International) before April 2024, at which point the brand will disappear. However, Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan recently said his carrier's products and identity would live on within the Air India brand.
