CaliguyNYC wrote: I think the main reason Vistara went 5X is because of their lack of spare 789 aircraft
That depends on how you look at it.
1. For the 3 that they already had, prior to the 4th one arriving, they did an average of 6X weekly for each 787.
2. So, the newly acquired one (#4) for BOM - LHR could also do at least 6X, and since it is not doing BOM-DEL local, and the 787 tails are swapped at LHR (BOM - LHR and DEL -LHR) so regular maintenance can be done at DEL. IMHO, for this reason, I can't understand 5X vs allotted 7X.
3. The head of Vistara engineering & maintenance, if I understand his tweet correctly, suggests that they don't have enough "maintenance" slots. (Is that how you read it? See the link below). To me, that's a shortcoming by Vistara. Why couldn't they invest more in creating maintenance slots which would allow the 787 to fly longer?
https://twitter.com/SisiraKantDash/stat ... 52232939544. Vistara is expected to get #5 787 in June/July and #6 in August/September. They have already indicated that their priority is Europe. So, presumably they would also open up BOM-CDG and BOM-FRA with #5 & #6.