While Air India continues to plough through its merger with Vistara, the airline had earlier committed that the Vistara experience would be available on all existing Vistara flights. There was no end date to the proposition but no firmness to the commitment about it being there forever.

Air India to position Vistara-branded aircraft on five metro routes

Air India stated that it would operate Vistara aircraft, which would be identified by a unique four-digit code beginning with the digit “2.” For instance, UK 955 will become AI 2955, helping customers identify them while booking on www.airindia.com after November 12. Vistara-liveried aircraft will have a sticker “Operated by Air India” on them until they go into the hangar for a paint job, probably a while away.

Now, Air India has announced “an optimisation” of its domestic route network, where the airline will prioritise deployment of its Vistara-branded narrowbody cabin products on five key metro-to-metro routes, beginning December 01, 2024.

This will see all the flights between the following metro cities operated with erstwhile Vistara A320-series aircraft offering Business, Premium Economy and Economy Class:

1. Delhi and Mumbai
2. Delhi and Bengaluru
3. Delhi and Hyderabad
4. Mumbai and Bengaluru
5. Mumbai and Hyderabad

Such flights will operate with ‘AI’-prefixed four-digit flight numbers beginning with ‘2’, such as AI2999 from Delhi to Mumbai. Air India will operate the following number of flights between these routes daily:

• 56x daily on Delhi-Mumbai and v.v
• 36x daily on Delhi-Bengaluru and v.v
• 24x daily on Delhi-Hyderabad and v.v
• 22x daily on Mumbai-Bengaluru and v.v
• 18x daily on Mumbai-Hyderabad and v.v

Campbell Wilson, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Air India, said:

The merger of Vistara into Air India has unlocked many new opportunities to improve our customer offering. By combining the strengths of both full-service carriers, we are able to consolidate our best narrowbody offering on routes where there is desire for a high-frequency, full-service product. We will progressively expand the coverage to more routes as Air India inducts new aircraft and completes the retrofit of our legacy narrowbody fleet during 2025.

Air India’s aircraft on the five metro-metro routes feature eight seats in Business Class, each offering 41 inches of pitch, 7 inches of recline, a leg rest, and a footrest; 24 extra legroom seats in a Premium Economy Class cabin, each offering 33 inches of pitch and 4 inches of recline; and 132 comfortable seats in Economy with 29 inches of standard pitch in the cabin and 3 inches of recline.

Analysing this move

On the Delhi—Mumbai Route, for instance, 31 nonstop flights are scheduled to operate on November 30, 2024, in the following breakup:

• 9 x Air India A320neo
• 15 x Vistara A320neo
• 1 x Air India A321
• 2 x Vistara A321neo
• 1 x Air India A350-900
• 2 x Air India 777
• 1 x Vistara 787-9

As of December 1, 2024, Air India will transition to A320neos and A321neos, operated by Vistara-branded equipment. A total of 29 flights will be operated:

• 23 x Vistara A320neo
• 4 x Vistara A321neo
• 1 x Air India A350-900
• 1 x Air India 777

As you can see, flight counts remain stable, even though the metal changes from Air India to Vistara exclusively. This also means there will be a consistent product offering now on these five routes of meal service: one kind of experience and one kind of seating, leaving behind the cramped seating on Air India’s new aircraft retrofits. However, this means people on other routes will experience a non-Vistara-branded product even if they had initially booked and paid for that one.

Also, these routes will receive a consistent Premium Economy product across all flights (except the 777/787 operations), which means that the airline will also have an opportunity to elevate its revenue yield on this route.

Air India customers received large-scale cancellation and rebooking messages as this exercise was underway last week.

Bottomline

Air India has announced that effective December 1, 2024, it will transition flights between Delhi and Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad, Hyderabad and Mumbai, and Bengaluru and Mumbai to Vistara-branded operations on Vistara-branded aircraft. Then, the airline will offer consistent products on these routes, including a Premium Economy cabin.

What do you make of this move from Air India to consolidate all operations on these routes on Vistara-branded planes?

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