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Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan on Monday said all legal approvals for its proposed merger with Air India are expected to be in place in the first half of 2024. In November 2022, Tata group announced the merger of Vistara with Air India under a deal wherein Singapore Airlines will also acquire a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India. At a briefing here, Kannan said the legal approvals for the merger are expected by the middle of 2024 and the operational merger is anticipated by early or middle of next year. He also said that all competition approvals are expected in the current quarter ending March. On September 1, 2023, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the proposed merger. Currently, Vistara has 67 planes in its fleet. The airline is a joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines.
The Tata Group has started an exercise to evaluate options to consolidate AirAsia India and Vistara under Air India to bring operational synergies among the three airlines under its umbrella, sources said. Air India, which the group had taken control of in January after winning the bid to acquire the national carrier for Rs 18,000 crore in October last year, has set up a team under its Director of Operations, R S Sandhu, sources familiar with the development said. The team will evaluate synergies in operations between Air India Express and AirAsia India as well as between Air India and Vistara, they said. "Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson has set up this team, which will look into synergy between Air India Express and AirAsia India and also between Air India and Vistara and how to achieve the merger," a source said. The team has been asked to submit its plan within one year, the source added. It is understood that the plan is to achieve consolidation of AirAsia India into Air