New Delhi (Staff Correspondent), November 13: Air India on Tuesday announced that it has completed its highly anticipated integration and merger with Vistara. Vistara, flight code ‘UK’, that operated for almost a decade, was a joint venture between Tata and Singapore Airlines. The merger has officially made Air India the India’s largest international airline and the second-largest domestic carrier after IndiGo. Vistara operated its last flight on Tuesday from Delhi to Singapore.
This is also one of the biggest mergers and largest consolidation in Indian aviation. Previous to this it was when the Indian Airlines had amalgamated with Air India in 2007. Other significant mergers in Indian aviation industry may be recalled as Air Sahara joining the Jet Airways and when Air Deccan was incorporated into Kingfisher Airlines.
However, the only worry here is that Air India is said to be in a transformation phase and deals with some service issues which only in time to come will be seen if persists or the company manages to deal with them in time.
WHY THE MERGER
The merger of Air India with Vistara was first announced in November 2022. The development was aimed by the Tata Group to create a full-service carrier and a low-cost carrier in order to be able to establish a world-class Indian aviation company.
Post the merger Air India Group will operate a combined fleet of 300 aircraft with 55 domestic and 48 international destinations. It also will operate on 312 routes and flies 8,300 weekly flights. At present, the collective staff strength of the airline stands after merger stands at over 30,000.
WHAT PASSENGERS MAY EXPECT
The passengers now flying Air India instead of Vistara that was known for its premium experience, will have to look for flight code – AI2 instead of the previously known UK.
But officials say that Air India is also undergoing a transformation to address the premium service that Vistara flyers were made used to over the past decade.
Also, Vistara’s frequent fliers list will now be addressed as Maharaja Club. All of them, more than four million, of Club Vistara frequent flyer accounts, with this merger, have been transferred to Air India’s flying returns programme called the Maharaja Club.
Another good thing that passenger may look up to is that availability fo flights with this merger is expected to improve at the airline is planning to improve and further make better not only the in-flight experience but also the flight availability and rostering.
Over all the experience after the merger is only expected to get better as the premium experience provider Vistara’s reflection is what the passenger will seek in Air India, which also just a few years ago went private after being handled by the Indian government for decades.
It is also because the new entity will fly more than one lakh passengers on daily basis and will also offer a diversified global connectivity to more than 750 800 destinations.
