7 takeaways from 100 days of the Air India-Vistara merger

February 20 marked the 100th day since Vistara merged with Air India. This led to India being left with just one full-service carrier and the Tata Group consolidating its aviation presence. Additionally, the new Air India now sees a 25.1 per cent investment from Singapore Airlines. 

The consolidation was important for the group which took over the loss-making Air India in the middle of the pandemic and was running Vistara, in partnership with Singapore Airlines and AirAsia India, in partnership with AirAsia Bhd as a loss-making enterprise. The consolidation sets the airline on a different path, where profitability may still be away but the combined strength helps take on IndiGo in the domestic market and extend the lead on the international side.

Also Read: 3 years of Air India under the Tatas: The hits and misses of Maharajah

Here are the seven takeaways from 100 days of the merger.

Seamless cut-off

As the clock struck midnight, Vistara was history, and a combined Air India was born. There was no chaos at the airports with missing flights and passengers running around. The communication to passengers and cut-off for the IT systems and passenger handling at the airports, including that of loyalty card members, went about as planned.

The Vistara network was short-lived

Air India came up with social media advertisements and full-page advertisements in newspapers highlighting how the former Vistara planes and staff would continue until early 2025. However, this was short-lived with a few flights shifting to Air India equipment right on the day of the merger and progressively changing the network to better suit its three-class configuration routes in the country, and abroad.

Also Read: Vistara to end services in November as merger with Air India gets key nod: Looking back at airline’s 3,595-day journey

Focus on major metro routes

The airline made a significant change to its metro-to-metro network, with Delhi—Mumbai, Delhi—Bengaluru, Mumbai—Bengaluru, Mumbai—Hyderabad, and Delhi—Hyderabad routes seeing a rejig of timings to ensure that the merged network offers more spread-out timings for the passengers. All flights are three-class, better serving the corporate traffic. 

Long way to go for common branding

The airline, which missed the bus in changing the branding at airports in one go, now has to deal with another variety that is Vistara. The inflight uniforms may have been standardised but the branding still remains a mix of Vistara and Air India at all touchpoints. Understandably, the livery change of the aircraft will take time, and so would be the case with the seats. The much-touted inflight branding is currently restricted to the A350s, which are flying to London as well as New York and Newark. 

Dip in domestic market share

The combined entity was supposed to be more powerful than before, but the Tata group's first full month of operations as a two-airline model saw a market share dip. This came in a month that recorded the highest-ever domestic traffic in India, clearly a sign that the airline group was losing out on traffic and needed time to calibrate its offering to the market.

Focus on Delhi and International connections

No sooner had the network stabilised after the merger, Air India went ahead with major changes to its international network. This saw the shift of flights from Mumbai to Delhi to strengthen its hub and also rejig the timings of flights to Australia. The additional capacity with the Vistara widebody aircraft allowed Air India to have a bank of flights to Paris and Frankfurt, thus offering a two-way connection to points in ASEAN and becoming the fastest option to Australia from some points in Europe. 

Also Read: Air India-Vistara merger: The routes that will be in focus

Additionally, many routes and a handful of planes have been transferred to Air India Express, the low-cost subsidiary.

Vistara is still popular

Going by social media chatter and photos, the brand Vistara may not exist anymore but remains popular. More posts talk about the former Vistara planes than they do about Air India ones. It may be a while before the last of Vistara's livery fades into oblivion, and more people would want to fly then than those who did on the last days of Vistara. 

Tail Note

The airline has repeatedly delayed its refit of legacy widebody aircraft, which was first announced at the time of revealing its new brand identity. While there remains a crunch of seats in the market with everything being blamed on supply chain issues, the airline could have well avoided multiple announcements around the same. As per its latest announcements, there will be an interim measure before the whole refit is completed in 2026, at the earliest. Its first refit of the narrowbody aircraft has also suffered delays with the aircraft, which was expected to be operational in December, by the airline’s own admission, has not made it out to commercial service over a month and a half later. 

With signs of thaw in Ukraine, if and when the Russian airspace opens, the airline will have to make do with competition on the North American routes, which was hitherto limited due to airspace availability challenges for American carriers while Air India overflew Russia, the shortest path to the Americas.