Mumbai: November 11, 2024, will go down in the history of India’s aviation industry and especially for Vistara Airlines as it struck midnight at 12 a.m. Thus, on the night of November 11th, Vistara was formally ceased to exist as Air India took over the airline. As a result of the merger, Vistara’s workforce of 6,500, fleet of 70 aircraft and all the domestic and international flights will be under Air India brand. While flipping through the pages of history, every aviation lover will surely find Vistara as a unique one. Vistara was launched in 2013 as a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, and it started its operations with a great vision.
Vistara Airlines first domestic flight took off on 5th January 2015 between Delhi and Mumbai. It is expected that the airline’s last flight will also take the same route. Vistara launched its International operations from 6 th August 2019 with the Delhi to Singapore flight. It transported more than 50,000 passengers per day and provided about 350 flights per day. However, it became clear that after the arrival of the Air India merger in 2022, Vistara’s operations will now be formally overseen by Air India from November the 12th.
To this end, Vistara has made several arrangements in order to prevent the inconveniences of passengers after the merger. The tickets have been updated and passengers who bought tickets under Vistara brand will receive their boarding passes under AI-2 for the next few days. All such flights will be operated by Air India.” The service will be available for passengers at the major airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai with Air India staff to help the passengers in case of re-scheduling or flight delays.
The aircraft will also come with Air India branding in the coming months as Vistara undergoes a rebranding exercise. From 12 November, the aircraft codes of Vistara will change to Air India and that is how the brand Vistara will gradually disappear. Post the merger Vistara passengers will be served by Air India personnel, however, some additional services like providing access to the lounge shall not be provided to Vistara passengers at this juncture.
The integration, though will lead to changes, is indicative of the consolidation process that has been initiated in the industry with a view to build a stronger Air India both in the domestic as well as the international arena. The brand name Vistara may fade into oblivion but the values of quality service and ideas it introduced into the Indian aviation industry will live on.
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