Air India-Vistara merger near completion with Singapore regulator’s final approval

Dhaka: The recent approval for the Air India-Vistara merger by the Singapore regulator marks the final competition-related clearance and enables both airlines to exchange detailed information for optimising schedules and contracts, said Air India Chief Campbell Wilson on March 8, as per reports.

The merger, announced in November 2022, involves the integration of Vistara with Air India, with Singapore Airlines acquiring a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India.

Vistara, a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Tata Group, has gained conditional approval from the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) on March 5. This approval follows commitments from Air India, Singapore Airlines and Vistara to address potential anti-competition concerns.

Reports cited Campbell Wilson, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Air India, saying, the CCCS approval, coupled with the previous approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI), now allows Air India and Vistara to collaborate on detailed information sharing, facilitating the optimisation of schedules, contracts and expediting the merger process.

A project spanning over eight months, involving more than 80 individuals, to harmonise operating procedures and manuals across the four Tata airlines, is entering its final phase, reports added citing Campbell.

The alignment is key for the safe transfer of crew and aircraft between different AOCs, a critical aspect of bringing together the two low-cost carriers—Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India)—along with merging the full-service carriers—Air India and Vistara, as part of Tata Group’s strategy to consolidate its airline business, concluded the reports.

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