The carrier, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, commenced operations on 9 January 2015 with its inaugural flight between Delhi and Mumbai.

[7][8][9][10][11] The two organisations had made a bid in the mid-1990s to launch a full-service carrier in India that eventually prevailed as unsuccessful after being denied regulatory approval by the Indian government.

India's Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved this venture in October 2013, allowing SIA to take a 49% stake in the airline.

[15] This was part of Tata's second major foray into the aviation sector along with a minority stake in AirAsia India.

[16] The company's maiden aviation venture, Tata Airlines, was established in the 1930s and later became the flag carrier Air India after its nationalisation.

[16][20][21] It became the first carrier to operate domestic services out of the new Terminal 2 at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

[23] From the first month of operation, Vistara consistently achieved very high on-time performance records of over 90%, the highest among India's domestic carriers.

[40][41] On 30 August 2024, Vistara announced that it would stop accepting new bookings from 3 September 2024 and merge with Air India on 12 November 2024.

[45] In March 2015, Vistara relocated to its new office at the One Horizon Center tower in Sector 43, Gurgaon, a satellite city of Delhi.

[50][51] In January 2016, Bhaskar Bhat, present managing director of Titan, joined as the new chairman following Prasad Menon's retirement.

[55] On 16 October 2017, it was announced that Leslie Thng would succeed Yeoh Phee Teik as CEO of Vistara.

[57] Thng was serving as Chief Commercial Officer of Budget Aviation Holdings, a Singapore Airlines subsidiary, prior to his appointment in Vistara.

[60] At the time of its merger with Air India, Vistara's head office was located at Tower A of Intellion Edge in Gurgaon.

[64] On 6 August 2019, the airline launched its first international flight from Delhi to Singapore using a Boeing 737-800NG aircraft which was earlier used by Jet Airways.

[86] In March 2015, Phee Teik Yeoh announced that the airline was planning to procure an unspecified number of both narrow-body and wide-body aircraft to enhance the domestic network and launch international flights within two years.

[99] Vistara World is the airline's wireless Wi-Fi inflight entertainment system that travellers can access on their personal handheld devices.

[106] With effect from 1 April 2020, Vistara discontinued its Flagship Lounge at Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.