When Vistara’s flight UK 819 left boarding gate 39A at Delhi airport’s Terminal 3 Monday afternoon headed for Bengaluru, it had on board a really particular passenger — the airline’s 50 millionth passenger.
A second of celebration for an airline that’s checking all of the containers, successful finest airline awards in addition to excessive scores from passengers on-line and off — and but may stop to exist in a number of months time.
For this ‘sundown airline’, as some are vaunt to explain it, future is, at finest, unsure — for the reason that takeover of state-run airline Air India by its bosses, the Tatas, it was introduced late final yr that Vistara will probably be merged into Air India to develop into the Tata group’s flagship full-service service, a course of that’s set to be full inside coming March.
Nonetheless, a discover issued by the Competitors Fee of India (CCI, India’s anti-monopoly physique) this weekend may pour chilly water over Bombay Home’s plans — based on reviews, CCI has issued a present trigger discover to the Tata Group to reply inside 30 days on why an investigation into the proposed merger not be carried out.
The CCI has some extent — the dominance of low-cost service Indigo on one aspect (it presently controls greater than 60 per cent of the home aviation market) and the Tata bouquet of 4 airways (Air India and Vistara that are to be merged; Air India Categorical and AirAsia India that are to be merged, respectively) on the opposite aspect is probably not likely excellent news for the home flyer who’s been lamenting sky rocketing air fares for a while now. In Could, Air India had a 9.4 per cent market share to Vistara’s 9 per cent.
As well as, Air India and Vistara are the one two full-service home carriers within the nation proper now, and their merger would imply there could be basically one single, monopoly service so far as full-fledged home airways are thought-about, with Jet Airways revival nonetheless remaining postponed and seemingly unsure in the intervening time.
There may be additionally the query of Singapore Airways (SIA), Tata’s 49 per cent three way partnership companion in Vistara. As per the phrases of the merger made public, SIA could have a 26 per cent stake within the new merged-entity.
Whereas the uncertainty over the airline’s future persists, the highest brass at its Gurugram headquarters appear to imagine in partying prefer it’s the final night time of their lives. Vinod Kannan, CEO, remained gung-ho and future-focussed when he mentioned on Monday, “As we proceed our journey, we’re resolute in our dedication to ship distinctive service and memorable expertise to our prospects.” The airline has, in latest weeks, introduced extra codeshares with the likes of Lufthansa, which provides 12 European locations to its flight plan. It additionally plans to introduce flights to Bali from Delhi from subsequent month onward.
In the meantime, the awards it has notched up carry on piling up, whilst Air India’s cup of woes run over, from peeing incidents to defecation and what not. Final fortnight, Vistara moved up 4 notches to No.16 within the Skytrax record of the world’s finest airways — and the one Indian airline within the high 20. Will all this glory be gone too quickly?
