Tata Sons have reportedly started the process to bring all its airlines under one umbrella of Air India. With this consolidation process, all its airline entities – Vistara, AirAsia India and Air India Express will reportedly come under Air India.
According to a report in the Economic Times, Tata Sons has started this process after holding several rounds of discussions with Singapore Airlines (SIA). If the process gets executed as planned, Air India could become the second largest airline in the country, especially in terms of fleet and market share, as per the report.
Through this consolidation, Tata Sons will have a low-cost carrier and a full-service airline under Air India. This would then be the only airline brand in the group after the merger, as per the report. With regards to making all this official, the report adds that an announcement is expected within a week.
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While these two airline entities are expected to begin their commercial cooperation soon, it is reported that it may take more than a year for them to start properly functioning as one under the umbrella. The report also added that The Vistara brand may be dropped and SIA is expected to be a minority shareholder in Air India with a few board members of the former expected to be included on board of Air India.
Before these updates, earlier this month, Tata’s also completed the consolidation process of Air India Express and AirAsia India. This was completed after the company bought the remaining stake of the latter and as per the ET report, the merger process is expected to be completed in next one year. As per last updates, Tata Sons held 51 per cent stake in Vistara.
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