'Sky Is Just The Beginning': Vistara Bids Goodbye

The song 'Kal Ho Na Ho' played as Vistara's Goa-Bengaluru flight landed at its destination on Sunday, invoking nostalgia among crew and members a day before the carrier's time in the Indian aviation landscape was to come to an end.

The full-service carrier Vistara, which is a 51:49 per cent joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, is all set to merge with Air India on November 12. In an Instagram post, the airline said, "As the plane ascends, so do our dreams; let's glide toward the future, where the sky isn't the limit, but just the beginning."

Why Is Vistara Merging With Air India?

Singapore's flagship carrier announced a plan to merge the decade-old Vistara and Tata-owned Air India in November 2022, in a bid to create a dominant full-service airline in the domestic and international markets.

The merger process, however, was anything but smooth, with problems like pilot shortages causing widespread flight cancellations and Vistara crew protesting over plans to align their salary structures with Air India proving to be hurdles.

As the merger concludes on Monday, Vistara's 49 per cent owner Singapore Airlines will have a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India. Singapore Airlines will make an additional investment of Rs 3,194.5 crore in Tata Group-owned airline.

How Is Air India Orchestrating The Transition For Fliers?

Air India has deployed additional resources, including help desk kiosks, at touch points and airports to ensure a smooth experience for Vistara passengers. There will be "customer support staff wearing 'How may I assist you?' Air India x Vistara branded t-shirts for support".

The staff will work with airport security to guide customers with old Vistara tickets to the nearest help desk or to Air India customer support staff and deploy advisory on self-service kiosks. In due course, Vistara airport ticketing offices and check-in terminals will become that of Air India.

Vistara aircraft will be identified by a special four-digit Air India code beginning with the digit '2'.

Over the last few months, 2,70,000 customers who had booked Vistara flights have been migrated to Air India, and more than 4.5 million Vistara loyalty programme members are being migrated to Air India's loyalty programme. Further, customers calling the Vistara contact centre will be automatically directed to Air India representatives, who will ensure a seamless experience during this transition.

The integrated entity will have a fleet of more than 200 planes, offering connectivity to 90 domestic and international destinations. Air India's narrowbody fleet continues to be upgraded with new aircraft being delivered, legacy aircraft being refitted with entirely new interiors and Vistara's catering now also extended to Air India.

Air India's widebody fleet has also been augmented with the entry of six A350 aircraft that have started to fly between Delhi and London, and Delhi and New York, the airline said.

In the first month after the merger, nearly 1,15,000 passengers who had purchased Vistara tickets pre-merger are expected to fly on unified Air India.

A Managerial Reshuffle

Vistara chief executive officer Vinod Kanan, who has also been holding the role of Chief Integration Officer for the merger of the two entities, will continue in the latter role post-merger. Besides, he will be a member of the management committee and report directly to Air India CEO Campbell Wilson, a company statement said.

Deepak Rajawat, Chief Commercial Officer of Vistara will take up the position of Chief Financial Officer at the low-cost arm Air India Express, reporting to its chief executive officer Aloke Singh and also support Air India Group CFO Sanjay Sharma in strategic initiatives and projects. Meanwhile, Vikas Agarwal, the current CFO of Air India Express, will move to a new role in Air India.

Senior vice president for flight operations at Vistara Hamish Maxwell has assumed an advisory role to Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh while Pushpinder Singh, Chief Operations Officer of Air India Express, returns to flying, as per the statement. A successor for Singh will be announced in due course.

Deepa Chadha and Vinod Bhatt, senior vice president HR & Corporate Affairs and Chief Information Officer of Vistara respectively, will take on senior roles at other Tata group companies, the statement said adding that Vistara CFO Niyant Maru, who had continued beyond his superannuation date to see through the completion of the merger, will retire at the end of his current term.

All other Air India Group CXO roles and reporting lines roles will remain unchanged.

Why Are Air India Pilots Miffed?

A section of Air India pilots is unhappy in the run-up to the Vistara merger over different retirement age limits for pilots of the two Tata Group-owned airlines as the management is yet to address the issue, sources told news agency PTI.

At Air India, the retirement age for pilots and other staff is 58 years, whereas at Vistara it is 60 years. "While the management was prompt in bringing parity in terms of salary structure and other working conditions of the employees of the two airlines as part of the merger process, it is yet to address the issue of two different retirement age limits," a source said on the condition of anonymity.

Air India Only Full-Service Carrier In Country

Vistara, like many other airlines, entered Indian aviation after the liberalisation of foreign direct investment norms. In 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led UPA government allowed foreign airlines to buy up to 49 per cent in a domestic carrier, which later resulted in the now defunct Jet Airways securing 24 per cent stake from Gulf carrier Etihad besides the birth of AirAsia India and Vistara.

With operations commencing on started flying on January 9, 2015, Vistara soon became synonymous with quality food and service and cultivated a loyal customer base. Meanwhile, Kingfisher went belly up in 2012 while Air Sahara, which was acquired by Jet Airways and renamed as JetLite, sank with Jet Airways in 2019.

Vistara's winding up will reduce the number of full-service carriers just one from five in a span of over 17 years.

Nostalgic Fliers Bid Goodbye

Social media was flooded with posts from loyal Vistara fliers, who remembered the airline for delivering the "new feeling" in travel. Many posted pictures from their travels on board the carrier.

IndiGo Steps In

IndiGo Airlines is set to introduce business class from mid-November on a handful of domestic flights, starting with the Delhi-Mumbai route, as it seeks to tap a growing crop of premium fliers. IndiGo's business class foray marks a departure in strategy for the no-frills carrier and a sign of growing demand for premium services in the country.

Currently, the airline only has economy class. It has a fleet of more than 360 aircraft and operates around 2,000 flights daily.

With inputs from PTI