Vistara merger with Air India takes off, Group to now operate 300 aircraft

Mumbai, Nov 12 (IANS) The Air India Group on Tuesday completed the operational integration and legal merger between Air India and Vistara, creating a full-service carrier of scale and marking a significant milestone in the post-privatisation transformation journey.

Post-merger, Air India Group will operate a combined fleet of 300 aircraft covering 55 domestic and 48 international destinations, with 312 routes and 8,300 flights per week. The collective staff strength stands at over 30,000 now.

According to the national carrier, the new full-service entity Air India operates over 5,600 weekly flights and connects more than 90 domestic and international destinations with a fleet of 208 aircraft. Low-cost entity Air India Express operates 2,700 weekly flights and connects more than 45 domestic and international destinations with a fleet of 90 aircraft.

"The merger of Air India and Vistara completes the consolidation and restructuring phase of the Air India Group’s post-privatisation transformation journey, and is thus a significant milestone," Air India Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Campbell Wilson, said.

Consequent to the merger of Vistara and Air India, Singapore Airlines, which held a 49 per cent share in Vistara, becomes a 25.1 per cent shareholder in the resultant Air India group.

"Given the scale and scope of this project and its unprecedented nature, I would like to acknowledge the support received from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and others in making this merger possible," Wilson added.

This followed the merger of the Group’s low-cost airlines Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly Air Asia India) on Oct 1.

The consolidation of the four Tata-owned airlines into one group operating one full-service and one low-cost airline is part of the ongoing, five-year transformation programme, Vihaan.AI, which is focused on establishing Air India Group as a world-class global aviation company with an Indian heart.

The unified full-service carrier will operate flights as ‘Air India’ with the airline code ‘AI’. Post-merger, Vistara aircraft will be operated by Air India, with the Vistara crew and service proposition, and can be identified by a four-digit flight number beginning with the digit '2' (UK 955 will become AI 2955). In addition, the existing members of Vistara’s loyalty programme Club Vistara have been transferred to Air India’s Flying Returns programme, now renamed ‘Maharaja Club’.

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