The Air India Group has now completed the operational integration and legal merger between Air India and Vistara. This creates a full-service carrier of scale, operating under the name Air India.
This marks the second major merger in the post-privatisation transformation journey. The merger of the Group’s low-cost airlines, was completed on 1 October 2024. This saw the merger of Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly Air Asia India).
Post-mergers, the Air India Group now operates a combined fleet of 300 aircraft. Its networks cover 55 domestic and 48 international destinations, with 312 routes and 8,300 flights per week.
Consolidation of Four Tata Group Airlines
The consolidation of the four Tata-owned airlines into one Group now sees one full-service and one low-cost airline. This is part of the ongoing, five-year transformation program, Vihaan.AI.
This program is focused on establishing the Air India Group as a world-class global aviation company with an Indian heart.
The new full-service entity, Air India, operates over 5,600 weekly flights. It connects more than 90 domestic and international destinations with a fleet of 208 aircraft.
The airline will now be flying over 120,000 passengers every day and offers extended worldwide connectivity to over 800 destinations. This is achieved through more than 75 codeshare and interline partners.
The preparation for the full-service merger commenced more than two years ago. It has seen the induction of more than 6,000 staff from Vistara into a new organizational structure.
It has involved the harmonization of operating procedures across the four airlines, and alignment of over 140 IT systems.
Additionally, more than 4,000 vendor contracts have been consolidated, 270,000 customer bookings migrated, and 4.5 million Club Vistara frequent flyer accounts inducted into Air India’s recently-redesigned frequent flyer program, Maharaja Club.
The merger received support from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). Many other other key stakeholders were involved, including multiple international regulators, due to the unprecedented nature and complexity of the parallel mergers.
Vihaan.AI Transformation Program
The Vihaan.AI transformation program has also seen a commitment to more than 500 new aircraft, the delivery of which is well underway, and the commencement of a USD 400 million interior retrofit program for legacy aircraft.
A new 600,000 square feet training facility with the capacity to train 2,000 employees per day has been opened. Ground has been broken on a 12-bay maintenance base that will be operational in early 2026.
More than 9,000 new employees have been inducted and trained, and the airlines’ IT platform has been entirely modernized.
Campbell Wilson, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Air India, acknowledged the support received from the DGCA, MoCA, BCAS, and others in making the merger possible.
He also thanked the staff for their efforts in driving the comprehensive transformation across the business and supporting the induction of over 100 additional aircraft to the operating fleet.
Summary
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. They can be identified by a four-digit flight number beginning with the digit “2”.
Additionally, the existing members of Vistara’s loyalty program, Club Vistara, have been transferred to Air India’s Flying Returns program, now renamed ‘Maharaja Club‘.
Consequent to the merger of Vistara and Air India; Singapore Airlines, which held a 49% share in Vistara, becomes a 25.1% shareholder in the resultant Air India group.
Click the banner to subscribe to our weekly newsleter.
]
Click the photo to join our WhatsApp channel so then you can stay up to date with everything going on in the aviation industry!
