India's ambitious carrier Vistara is set to launch non-stop flights from Delhi to Tokyo in Japan. Using its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, the airline intends to operate the route once per week from mid-June. The route will make use of a travel bubble agreement in place between India and Japan.

Many countries are currently restricting travel to and from India, given the surge in COVID-19 cases being experienced by the nation. Despite this, it seems that some Indian airlines are still eyeing short-term international expansion to their route networks, as has been shown by Vistara.

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Tokyo connections

Indian carrier Vistara today revealed ambitions to fly to Tokyo, the capital city of Japan. From June 16th, the airline will be operating one rotation a week on the route, originating in the Indian capital, Delhi. The flight has been scheduled so that the aircraft will spend over 24 hours on the ground in Tokyo. The schedule is as follows,

• UK83 – Delhi (DEL) 03:00 – Tokyo Haneda (HND) 14:50 – 08h20m – Wednesdays
• UK84 – Tokyo Haneda (HND) 17:50 – Delhi (DEL) 23:55 – 09h15m – Thursdays

Commenting on the new route launch, Leslie Thng, CEO at Vistara, said,

"We are delighted to add Japan to our international network, under the travel bubble and look forward to providing the best of Indian hospitality while maintaining the highest standards of safety and hygiene for our customers on this sector."

Tickets on the leg to Japan will be cheaper, starting at ₹45,049 ($614.19) for the economy cabin, ₹73,699 ($1,004.80) for premium, and ₹150,399 ($2,050.52) for business. For comparison, flights in the other direction will start at ¥90,099 for economy ($828.42), ¥184,699 ($1,698.44) for premium, and ¥410,999 ($3,779.44) for business.

Boeing 787 flights

The new route will be operated by Vistara's flagship aircraft, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Vistara currently only has two 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The aircraft has been key to Vistara's international expansion, operating flights to London and Frankfurt. Due to India's red list status, the airline is currently unable to fly passengers to London. The airline is still operating flights to London.

The 787 has a three-cabin layout, with a business, premium economy, and economy cabin. At the front of the cabin are 30 business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. Behind this is a modest premium economy cabin with three rows of 2-3-2 seating.

Finally, at the rear of the aircraft is the economy cabin with 248 seats in a 3-3-3 layout. As such, the aircraft has a total of 299 seats onboard the aircraft. You can read more about Vistara's 787 Dreamliner layout here.

In October, Simple Flying reported that Vistara had hoped to start 2021 with six Boeing 787-9 aircraft. Boeing didn't deliver any new 787 Dreamliner aircraft between October 2020 and March 2021. As such, the number of Dreamliners in Vistrara's fleet had remained steady.

New aircraft found their way to the Mojave Desert in California. With Boeing hoping to deliver a backlog of 100 manufactured Dreamliners by the end of the year, one would imagine that Vistara deliveries would resume soon.

What do you make of Vistara's new route announcement? Let us know what you think and why in the comments below!