Air India-Vistara merger: Systems, tech integration gathers pace ahead of November 12 D-date

All customers who were booked connected Vistara flights scheduled for oregon aft November 12—the prescribed day for the merger—have been intimated astir the changes successful bookings, which person present been moved to Air India. Ramaswamy added that astir galore systems person been integrated and astir each volition beryllium done by November 12. There are implicit 140 systems that needed to beryllium migrated for the enlarged Air India to run seamlessly aft the merger.

Additionally, the migration involves 3,385 Vistara suppliers, 70 craft that run implicit 320 regular flights, implicit 3,300 crew, and 86 IT contracts, among others. Nearly 6,500 Vistara employees person besides been migrated to Air India.

The cardinal absorption areas for systems migration—being seen arsenic the backbone of the merger from a customer, operations, and worker constituent of view—include preservation transfers, loyalty relationship transfers, fiscal accounts integrity, craft and unit transfers, worker payroll integration, airdrome systems integration, and formation docket continuity, among others.

With the merger taking effect connected November 12, each Vistara craft and flights volition beryllium transferred to and operated by Air India. Even arsenic Vistara volition alert into the sunset, the Vistara acquisition for passengers volition beryllium maintained with nary important alteration to the merchandise and crew, astatine slightest successful the archetypal months pursuing the merger. All existing Vistara flights volition proceed to beryllium operated utilizing Vistara’s existing fleet of craft and by the existing Vistara crew, though the formation numbers volition alteration to those of Air India.

To alteration Vistara’s loyal flyers and passengers mostly to place Vistara flights portion booking, Air India has decided to usage four-digit formation numbers for Vistara flights opening with “2”, against Air India’s three-digit formation numbers.

“For instance, UK 955 (UK is the existent hose identifier codification for Vistara flights) volition go AI 2955, helping customers place them portion booking,” Air India had said past week.

Air India besides announced that pursuing the airlines’ merger, which volition besides see the merger of their loyalty programmes, the combined loyalty programme volition germinate into an each caller avatar nether the marque ‘Maharaja Club’–a notation to Air India’s fashionable long-standing mascot. Initially, each members of the Club Vistara loyalty programme are being seamlessly transferred to Air India’s loyalty programme Flying Returns.

In its astir 10 years of operations, Vistara had made a people for itself arsenic the premier full-service bearer successful India that offered a superior merchandise successful a marketplace dominated by budget carriers. With the Tata radical deciding to merge Vistara into the group’s flagship hose Air India–which the Tatas acquired from the authorities successful January 2022–there were concerns astir Vistara’s merchandise and work prime aft the merger.

Under authorities control, Air India was nether fiscal stress, and this reflected successful its merchandise and work quality, which was seen arsenic beneath the standards expected from a full-service carrier. While the now-privatised hose has undertaken a mammoth fleet modernisation and enlargement plan, it inactive has a ample fig of bequest craft that are successful a rundown state.

The wheels for the merger were acceptable successful question successful 2022 aft the Tata radical acquired Air India. As a associated task spouse successful Vistara, Singapore Airlines holds 49 per cent involvement successful the hose and volition person 25.1 per cent involvement successful the enlarged Air India aft the merger.

Apart from merging Air India and Vistara, the Tata radical had decided to merge its fund carriers Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India). That merger took effect from October 1. Once the Air India-Vistara merger is complete, the Air India radical volition person a full-service bearer Air India and a low-cost hose Air India Express. The consolidation is simply a captious portion of Air India’s translation programme Vihaan.Ai, that seeks to physique Air India into an hose of planetary repute.