Air India, which is in the process of completing the merger of Vistara with itself, has recently received the CCI nod to go ahead with the merger. Since then, operational harmonisation has been initiated, and Vistara’s employees are being seconded to Air India. One more approval is needed before the legal merger can take off: Singapore Airlines’ additional investment of USD 250 million in the combined entity to bring its stake up to 25.1% in the combined Air India. Now, one of the first public-facing next steps is coming to life, affecting all Vistara and Air India customers.

Air India initiates codeshare on Vistara flights.

While the financial steps are sorted out, Air India has implemented a global codeshare on Vistara flights. This will allow Air India to place its code AI on Vistara flights, usually signified by the code UK regarding flight numbers. This process has been ongoing all this week. Earlier this week, the Vistara flight display systems started showing the Air India codes on the flight display.

Yesterday (July 17, 2024), Air India rolled out the codeshare on its side, starting to display and sell, with immediate effect, all Vistara flights on its reservation systems across various channels. The flights marketed by Air India and operated by Vistara are denoted as AI6xxx on the different digital channels.

Take, for instance, the Air India website selling Vistara flights with an AI code. The tail is still Vistara to ensure that people know the difference. If you book the tickets with an Air India code, you should be able to earn Air India or any other Star Alliance member airmiles, depending on the frequent flyer number you insert. You won’t be able to earn Vistara points on tickets booked with an Air India code.

The code is also applied to international flights, not just domestic ones. For instance, Vistara’s Delhi to Paris flight is sold on the Air India code.

The codeshare is oneway, which means Air India can place its code on Vistara flights and sell them as if you were buying Air India tickets. However, Vistara cannot place its code on Air India flights and sell them.

The codeshare allows the airline to sell mixed itineraries. For instance, take Delhi to Port Blair, where you can fly halfway on Air India and Vistara. Air India will issue you boarding passes in Delhi, and the ground handling teams will automatically transfer your baggage to the next flight on Vistara.

Either way, this is the first step in migrating Vistara and housing them into Air India. This will work for a while before the Vistara brand is stopped and everything is handled on the Air India Air Operators Permit. This is the same playbook followed during the initial days of the Air India Express and AIX Connect merger (and followed to the day), while the two airlines operate on separate AOPs for now.

Beware of booking Vistara on the Air India website just for the points, though. Many people were excited about this news, which Air India has not officially announced. In all cases, you will pay more for the Vistara tickets by booking them on Air India than on Vistara’s website. I’ll explain the why in another post, but you will note a significant difference, which could be in thousands of INR per leg.

Bottomline

Air India has started placing the Vistara flights on their sales channels and now refers to them under a blanket code share on Vistara flights. The codeshare will be implemented across the Vistara network, and all flights will be included. However, the flights are expensive compared to those bought on Vistara’s sales channels.

What do you make of the Air India codeshare on Vistara flights?

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