Vistara today operated a flight with fully vaccinated crew, becoming the 1st airline to do so. Flight UK963 from Delhi to Mumbai marked an important milestone for the airline.
Vistara today announced that it has operated its 1st flight with fully vaccinated pilots and cabin crew. Flight UK963 departed at 09:09 from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and landed at 10:52 at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The aircraft operating the flight was a Airbus A320neo registered as VT-TNS.
Both pilots and all cabin crew had received both doses of their COVID-19 vaccine, thereby being classified as fully vaccinated. The same crew operated flight UK960 back to New Delhi, completing two fully vaccinated crew flights for the airline.
Vinod Kannan, Chief Commercial Officer, Vistara, in a statement said:
Vaccination is the best known defence against the pandemic that is helping the world get back to normalcy, subsequently aiding the recovery of the aviation industry. We have been consistently getting our staff vaccinated in our endeavour to ensure safety for them, their families and our customers whom they serve. This special flight operated by our fully vaccinated cabin crew and pilots is a sign of our continued commitment towards making ‘flying feel safe again’.
Vistara had, in early June, announced that it had given one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to nearly its entire workforce. With almost the entire staff partially vaccinated, Vistara plans to operate more fully vaccinated flights in the coming weeks and months as more crew get their 2nd dose.
As India has set the interval for two vaccine doses at 12-16 weeks for the Oxford-AstraZenca vaccine and 4 to 6 weeks for COVAXIN and considering the rollout for those under 45 only began in May, it will be not before September that Vistara will have its entire workforce fully vaccinated.
Fully vaccinated flights are not a new thing with airlines around the world flying special flights to mark vaccinations. Middle eastern giant Emirates operated a flight from Dubai to Los Angeles with fully vaccinated crew. Just a few weeks after that, Emirates operated its 1st fully vaccinated flight with the passengers and crew having received both the jabs of the vaccine. In April, Qatar Airways became the 1st airline in the world to operate such flight.
Meanwhile, Vistara recently took delivery of its 1st owned Airbus A320neo and also got permission to operate flights to the United States. The airline has also delayed the launch of Tokyo flights.
Featured image by ThePrint
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