Air India-Vistara merger: Graveyard of brands in the sky

India has seen many beloved airline brands get swallowed up or shut down. As Vistara merges with Air India, a look at what has kept some of them flying.
Image used for representational purposes only.
Image used for representational purposes only.Express Illustrations | Sourav Roy
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4 min read

As you read this column today, Air Vistara is no more. Yet another airline brand has moved on into the graveyard of Indian aviation brands. Lying dead in this graveyard is a veritable set of well-loved brands. Damania, Modiluft, Air Deccan, Sahara, Jet, GoAir and Kingfisher are but a few of the bigger ones who bade goodbye to passengers who seemed to have loved them to no end.

Each of these airlines had their die-hard fans. While Damania was an airline that shot to fame as it offered alcohol on its domestic routes (I have seen whisky being served and guzzled on early morning flights), Sahara promised of being Indian, patriotic and wanted to be “emotionally yours.” Air Deccan asked you to “simplify” and Kingfisher Airlines offered you glamour and red livery that spoke of luxury. The airline even had a separate business class coach with leather sofas mounted on buses to ferry their passengers from the terminal to the aircraft.

Every airline India has had the privilege to host has made an impact unique to its own customers. Many of us remember each one lovingly, even as we wistfully ask why they had to go. Each airline had its own set of compulsions. The one common reason for the death of an airline is a bleeding bottomline. All of them bled to death in more ways than one. Some left a huge debt. Some declared bankruptcies, and some ran away without paying their debtors and employees alike.

Promoters of many airline ventures have had it rough as well. If you run an airline, you run the risk of not only burning up money but you run the risk of burning your reputation as well. Each of them tried hard, had larger-than-life images built over time, but the business got them down.

Which, then, is the one airline that has shown tenacity to date? The one airline that has just gone on and on? The answer is out there clearly.

Air India is today an amalgam of what was Indian Airlines, Vayudoot and a whole host of experiments that seem to have seamlessly merged into the Air India brand imagery. There is a little bit of everything in Air India.

Air India has emerged to be the mother brand that has been there and done that. Within the stream of managers that today make up the Air India enterprise, there is experience of every kind, good and bad. Add to it whole sets of aviation folk who served every other airline that burnt out and joined the airline.

While Air India has lasted since 1932, starting with Tata Air Services, the biggest aviation startup success in India is, however, IndiGo. It has built experiences consistently. In a flat 18 years, the airline has cobbled together the largest fleet in India and occupies the biggest market share.

As of today, if you see 10 flights in the air, six would be IndiGo, three would be Air India and the remaining one could be any one of the others, Akasa and SpiceJet included. What does this say? The IndiGo model is a success. In just under two decades, the airline has made its full-economy low-cost model a success. Its branding is unique and peppy, and its service is patchy at times, but it delivers. Flyers have somehow embraced the airline and its offerings with gusto.

As brand Vistara merges into Air India seamlessly, there are many questions being asked. Vistara was indubitably the superior airline in the offering from the Tatas post the acquisition of Air India. It was a smaller one though. Air India, on the other hand, is still busy getting its act right. While the brand identity has been sorted out beautifully, its service standards, food, upkeep of interiors still remain contentious issues. While work is in progress, it seems to be taking forever. The question then, should Air India have sorted these issues first before addressing the cosmetic issue of brand and label? 

Other questions rage. Should Vistara and its painstakingly built reputation (over a decade of dedicated work) be kept intact and separate? Should it have been run as ‘Air India Vistara’, at least till Air India was able to match up to the gold standard offering set up by Vistara? Or could it have been a separate entity altogether? A ‘Vistara by Air India’ kind of offering? 

While it is easy for an outsider, flyer and layperson to pontificate on these options, Air India has done what it thinks is best for its business. Time alone will tell whether it was the right way to go. As Vistara merges into Air India, I am sure it is an emotional moment for many an employee, vendor and frequent flyer.

Does it mean that Cinderella turned into a Cinder girl in a pumpkin at the stroke of the midnight hour last night? Not really.

Hopefully, the Vistara standards will find their way into the larger organisation of Air India. Hopefully, the customer-first view will take centre-stage at Air India. Hopefully, the team that evangelised the Vistara brand will have its say in the new merged entity as well. Hopefully the big will not gobble up the small. Hopefully David will win as always and Goliath will imbue the David mindset as Air India takes on its IndiGo competition. 

Managing a merger is a difficult task. When it comes to a merger of unequals, it is even more difficult. Air India is the bigger one on the count of size and heritage. Vistara is the bigger one in terms of quality standards and delivery imagery. Who will lead and who will follow?

In the cockpit of a merged Air India flight, you are quite likely to have a mix of pilots. The same is likely with the crew. Who will set the culture within the airline eventually? Will Air India rule? Or will Vistara? The answer is certainly blowing in the winds, and it shall all be clear within a few months. Mergers have a way, and even this shall have its way.

I am typing this piece on an Airbus A320 flight from Kolkata to Bengaluru, one of the last few Vistara flights before its merger with Air India on the midnight of November 11. As the aircraft touches down, I wish the merger the very best. I will miss Vistara like a dear friend. I have flown it ever so often. I will not fly it again though—not my choice. Farewell, dear friend. 

Harish Bijoor

Brand Guru & Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults

(Views are personal)

(harishbijoor@hotmail.com)

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