Air India plans to minimise the overlap between its older aircraft and Vistara planes at the individual route level after the carriersâ impending merger in a bid to provide certainty to flyers regarding the quality of product they are likely to experience, according to sources in the know. Vistaraâs 70 aircraftâ63 narrow-body and seven wide-body jetsâoffer a superior passenger experience than most of Air Indiaâs fleet, which still has a number of old legacy aircraft from its government ownership days.
Air India has already announced that after the merger, which will take effect on November 12, the Vistara product will continue as it is for a few months at least and customers will be able to identify flights operated by the Vistara aircraft and crew easily as they will have a four-digit flight number starting with 2, against Air Indiaâs three-digit flight numbers.
Sources indicated that the product differentiation is likely to continue at least till June, when the retrofit programme for Air Indiaâs legacy narrow-body fleet is scheduled to be completed. With new aircraft coming in and older aircraft undergoing refurbishment, Air India will eventually be able to offer a uniform product across its fleet and the planes will largely become fungible.
In the interim, the Tata group airline will try and ensure that each route has consistency in its product offering, which would mean that the carrier will look to deploy Vistaraâs aircraft and its own new aircraft on certain priority routes like those connecting metropolitan cities with one another, and deploy Air Indiaâs older aircraft on certain other routes, per sources. The idea is to set the customerâs expectations right and offer a consistent product on that route irrespective of the flight booked.
The rejig will not be limited to just the domestic network of the enlarged Air India, and would include international routes as well where currently both Air India and Vistara operate. Slots at certain international airports are also being adjusted accordingly.
âVistara aircraft and Air Indiaâs new aircraft will most likely be used to operate metro-to-metro routes, while the older planes will be deployed on some other routes. The overlap will be minimised on international routes as well, like Delhi-Frankfurt flights are likely to be operated by the Vistara aircraft, while Delhi-Paris may be served only by Air India aircraftâŚOf course, a few overlaps here and there cannot be avoided,â said a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
In its nearly 10 years of operations, Vistara had made a mark for itself as the premier full-service carrier in India that offered a superior product in a market dominated by budget carriers. With the Tata group deciding to merge Vistara into the groupâs flagship airline Air Indiaâwhich the Tatas acquired from the government in January 2022âthere were concerns about Vistaraâs product and service quality after the merger.
Under government control, Air India was under financial stress, and this reflected in its product and service quality, which was seen as below the standards expected from a full-service carrier. While the now-privatised airline has undertaken a mammoth fleet modernisation and expansion plan, it still has a large number of legacy aircraft that are in a rundown state.
The $400-million upgradation of the airlineâs entire narrow-body fleet started last month and is expected to be complete by the middle of next year. As for its legacy wide-body aircraftâBoeing 787s and 777sâAir India expects their retrofit to start early next year.
4 min read
