Team of 80 people harmonising ops of 4 Tata airlines: Air India CEO

The Tata Group is consolidating its aviation business and merging four airlines into two

Over the past eight months, a team of 80 people has been diligently working to harmonise operating procedures across four airlines run by the Tata group, as part of two mergers, revealed Campbell Wilson, Air India's chief executive officer (CEO), on Friday.

The Tata group is consolidating its aviation business by merging four airlines into two: Air India and Vistara are merging to form a single full-service carrier, while AIX Connect and Air India Express are combining to create a unified low-cost carrier (as a subsidiary of Air India).

Wilson, in a message to employees, expressed his appreciation for the approval of the Air India-Vistara merger by the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS).

"This (approval) complements the one granted by the Competition Commission of India six months ago and, being the final competition-related approval, permits Air India and Vistara to now share detailed information to optimise our schedules, contracts and accelerate the journey to the merger,” he said.

In light of this, it is heartening to see that a key enabler of this merger has already been running full steam ahead, he noted. “The project we’ve been running, involving more than 80 people over eight months, to harmonise operating procedures and manuals across the four Tata airlines is now entering its final phase,” Wilson mentioned.

The cross-airline team has been working tirelessly, spending two days (Thursday and Friday) together to finalise changes to documents and chart the implementation path. “Alignment of procedures will expedite the safe transfer of crew and aircraft from one AOC (air operator certificate) to another, so it is a critical aspect of bringing our two low-cost carriers, and our two full-service carriers, into the final state. Thank you to all involved in obtaining the competition clearances as well as everyone working hard to align our processes,” he said.

Vistara, a 51:49 joint venture between the Tata group and Singapore Airlines, anticipates an operational merger with Air India by mid-2025. Its CEO Vinod Kannan, at a press briefing in January, also expressed expectations of receiving legal approvals for the merger by the middle of the current calendar year.

In November 2022, Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines announced plans to merge Vistara into Air India. As part of the deal, Singapore Airlines will invest Rs 2,059 crore in the expanded share capital of Air India for a 25.1 per cent stake, leaving Tata Sons with the remaining 74.9 per cent stake in the combined entity.

On International Women’s Day, Air India operated 15 flights with all-women crews in both domestic and international sectors. Women constitute over 15 per cent of Air India's pilots and as much as 51 per cent of its workforce.