Air India and Vistara are the only two remaining full-service airlines in India, and the eventual fate, as announced in 2022, is that they will be merged into one. However, since then, this has led to a specific fear or disappointment amongst Vistara loyalists, who hope for this merger not to go through. Vistara and Air India managements have tried to appease those loyalists by telling them that the two airlines might only be combined once Air India meets the same standards as Vistara.

Air India’s CEO talks about the merger to Bloomberg

Air India’s CEO, Campbell Wilson, recently headed to Singapore for a keynote at the Aviation Festival Singapore and talked to Bloomberg about the merger timelines on the sidelines. He mentioned that the airline has clearance from all the countries where the two airlines overlap (such as India, UAE, Germany, and so on), except for the clearance from Singapore.  As an aside, there will be the need for another hearing from the Indian regulator (I presume he is talking NCLT) before the merger can be effected.

You can have a look at the Bloomberg TV interview here. But what Wilson implies is that he hopes the merger can be effected later in the year. Hearing him speak implies that the legal merger of the two entities (Tata SIA and Air India Limited) will happen, allowing the company to move people into new roles. At the moment, people have to resign from one entity to be able to take on a role at the other company. Vistara’s CEO Vinod Kannan has previously implied that the two entities might receive the legal clearances between March and October 2024.

Vistara and Air India’s situation will be akin to the current Air India Express/ AIX Connect (AirAsia India), where there is one customer-facing brand but two airlines operating at the back end with codes I5 and IX. Eventually, there will be a merger of the two entities, followed by a merger of the two Air Operators Certificates.

Eventually, achieving this timeline is excellent news for Air India, Vistara, and the Tata Group. Also, it looks very doable now that Wilson has clarified that many of the steps have been completed, and there are only two major steps to close the merger. I fully expect a press release to quietly slip into my inbox one of these days announcing that the deal is done.

Bottomline

The Air India – Vistara merger is on track, with the Air India group awaiting clearance from the Singapore competition regulator and then a hearing with the Indian NCLT to permit the merger to go through. As per Air India’s CEO, the merger should be expected to be closed within 2024.

What do you think of the timeline of the merger of Air India and Vistara?

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