Vistara and Air India have Completed their Merger

News Desk, News Nation 360 : An important turning point in the post-privatization transformation process has been reached with the completion of the legal merger and operational integration of Air India and Vistara by Air India Group, forming a full-service carrier of scale. This comes after the low-cost carriers Air India Express and AIX Connect (previously Air Asia India) merged on October 1, 2024. The Air India Group, under the Tata umbrella, is said to have a major five-year transformation programme known as Vihaan.AI by which the airline aims to become a global, world-class aviation company. This is an umbrella that encompasses a major consolidation exercise, where four airlines were earlier distinct entities - Air India, Air India Express, Vistara, and AIX Connect - and is now to be considered one group with two different distinct entities namely, a full-service airline (Air India) and low-cost airline. The new Air India, with a network that reaches more than 8,300 weekly flights to over 100 domestic and international destinations for 300 aircraft. The full-service Air India operates over 5,600 flights, covering over 90 destinations, reaching them all with 208 planes, delivering daily service to over 120,000 passengers, with extensive connectivity across the world through partnerships. This significant merger involved the consolidation of personnel from more than 6,000 people - just from Vistara - and standardization of procedures at all four airlines save for putting complex IT systems in line, numbering more than 140. Moreover, the Vihaan.AI program also includes several other plans: securing over 500 new aircraft, refurbishing existing with an investment of $400 million, opening a mega training facility, establishing a new maintenance base, significantly increasing the workforce by signing and training over 9,000 employees, and IT infrastructure for the entire airline group. This bold transformation plan was complemented by timely collaboration with Indian aviation authorities - DGCA, MoCA, BCAS, and other stakeholders an incident-free integration process. Consolidating Air India and Vistara marks a landmark moment for the post-privatization transformation of the Air India Group. The teams from all four airlines, along with all other stakeholders, have been working closely in close collaboration to provide a seamless transition of employees, assets, operations, and, most importantly, customers, over the last two years. The secret to making this merger a success lies not only with the support from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), and so on but also in the staff of Air India Group who have demonstrated extraordinary dedication and hard work in driving comprehensive business transformation with effective integration of more than 100 new aircraft into the fleet. The Group will be fully committed to creating a world-class global airline that would embody Indian values. The merged full-service carrier will fly under the brand name "Air India" with the airline code "AI". Post-merger, Vistara aircraft will continue to operate under Air India but will retain the services and crew standards of Vistara. Aircraft will differentiate through four-digit flight numbers wherein the digit "2" will form the prefix of the four-digit number, for instance, UK 955 will become AI 2955.