NEW DELHI: The top management of Air India and Vistara held a joint townhall meeting on Monday where Air India CEO Campbell Wilson and Vistara CEO/chief integration officer Vinod Kannan highlighted the ongoing integration process between the two airlines and said the merger is on track to be completed by the end of this year or early 2025.
During the town-hall, it was informed that more than 7,000 employees of Air India and Vistara have been assessed and their fitment will be complete in June. Currently, Air India and Vistara together have more than 23,500 employees.
Integration exercise between the two airlines has also started as 120 pilots have been seconded between Vistara and Air India, with more than 60 Vistara employees taking roles in Air India. The employee ratio between Air India and Vistara has been kept at 12:5 since the beginning of the integration process.
The roles and responsibilities of the 7,000-odd employees, including the flying staff, will be clear by the end of next month. Sources said that Campbell spoke about how the merger is an important step in the creation of a world-class airline that the Tata Group had envisioned at the time of the takeover from the Government in January 2022.
Air India Group expects the combined company will make the largest and strongest full-service carrier ever built in India. Sources said that the top management is confident that the airline group, comprising Air India and Air India Express, will become India’s largest international carrier, connecting five of the seven continents, operating more flights, carrying more passengers, and deploying the highest capacity on international routes, than any other carrier.
The combined airline expects that after Vihaan.AI transformation plan, it will be 3X the current size. Air India is expected to receive a new aircraft arriving every six days from its orders with Airbus and Boeing for 470 aircraft.
Sources that Air India assured employees of the combined airline by saying that they would benefit from being part of the Group with a vision of an accelerated growth path and a stable financial foundation, which would lead to greater opportunities over the long term. Campbell also spoke about Air India’s status of the regulatory approvals.
This assurance to employees by the top management of the two airlines comes as they recently saw a revolt by a section of their working force.
Integration exercise of two airlines started
Integration exercise between the two airlines has also started as 120 pilots have been seconded between Vistara and Air India, with more than 60 Vistara employees taking roles in Air India. The employee ratio between Air India and Vistara has been kept at 12:5 since the beginning of the integration process.