Full-service carrier Vistara will fly its last flights on Monday as the airline folds into the Air India Group. The airline will merge with Air India, to reduce the number of full-service carriers in the Indian skies to only one.
Vistara, a joint venture between the Tatas and Singapore Airlines, will also see the Singaporean airline holding 25.1 per cent stake in the merged entity.
In the first month after the merger, more than 115,000 passengers with Vistara tickets will fly under the Air India name. The group has, however, said that the Vistara experience will not change. The airline will now operate with flight codes beginning with ‘2’, such as AI 2955 for the current UK 955 flight.
The airline had announced that the same Vistara product and service experience will still be on offer. There would be help desk kiosks set up at airports to help with the transition. At international airports, signage and information will guide passengers to the correct check-in desks, while the Vistara contact centre will redirect calls to Air India’s representatives to ensure continuity.
The loyalty members of Vistara will be migrated to the Air India programme.
VISTARA ORIGINS
When the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government permitted foreign airlines to acquire up to 49% in a domestic carrier in 2012, it led to Jet Airways securing a 24% stake from the Gulf carrier Etihad and the emergence of AirAsia India and Vistara. Vistara was the only full-service carrier to have commenced operations in the past decade in Indian skies.
Over the years, airlines such as Kingfisher and Air Sahara, rebranded as JetLite, shut down operations. Jet Airways, which operated for 25 years, was grounded in April 2019 due to financial issues and is now set for liquidation.
Vistara launched in January 2015. Singapore Airlines held 49 per cent and Tata Group held 51per cent in the airline.
