Today (12th November) has seen the successful completion of Air India Group’s operational integration and legal merger between Air India and Vistara, creating a large, combined full-service carrier and marking a significant milestone in the group’s post-privatisation transformation journey.
This news follows the merger of the Group’s low-cost airlines – Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly Air Asia India) – which completed on 1st October 2024.
The consolidation of the four Tata-owned airlines into one Group operating one full-service airline and one low-cost airline is part of the group’s ongoing, five-year transformation programme, named Vihaan.AI, which is focussed on establishing Air India Group as a world-class global aviation company.
Besides the consolidation of the four airlines, the Vihaan.AI transformation programme has committed to more than 500 new aircraft orders, delivery of which are well underway, and the commencement of a US$400 million interior retrofit programme for legacy aircraft.
In other aspects of the programme, a new 600,000 square feet training facility has been opened, with the capacity to train 2,000 employees per-day, and 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 modernised.
The unified Air India Group now operates more than 8,300 weekly flights on 312 routes, connecting more than 100 domestic and international destinations with a fleet of 300 aircraft.
A key part of the group, the new Air India full-service entity, operates more than 5,600 weekly flights and connects more than 90 domestic and international destinations with a fleet of 208 aircraft. The airline will now fly more than 120,000 passengers every, with extended worldwide connectivity to over 800 destinations through more than 75 codeshare and interline partners.
Formal preparations for the full-service merger commenced more than two years ago, and has involved the induction of more than 6,000 staff from Vistara into a new organisation structure, harmonisation of operating procedures across the four airlines, and alignment of over 140 IT systems. More than 4,000 vendor contracts have been consolidated, 270,000 customer bookings migrated, and 4.5 million Club Vistara frequent flyer accounts inducted to Air India’s recently redesigned frequent flyer programme, Maharaja Club.
Given the complexity of the parallel mergers, which coincide with the Group’s significant expansion and transformation programmes, close contact was maintained with India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which supported and monitored the process throughout. The merger also received support from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and other key stakeholders, including multiple international regulators.
Campbell Wilson, managing director & Chief Executive Officer of Air India, said of the completed merger, “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. Over the past two years, teams across the four airlines have worked closely together and with other stakeholders to ensure that the transition of people, assets, operations and, most importantly, customers, was as seamless as possible.”
Wilson also re-emphasised a commitment to creating a world-class global airline 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 Vistara crew and service, and can be identified by a four-digit flight number beginning with the digit “2” (e.g. UK 955 will become AI 2955).
In addition, the existing members of Vistara’s loyalty program Club Vistara have been transferred to Air India’s Flying Returns programme, 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.
