NCLT approves Air India-Vistara merger; Vistara will be dissolved within 9 months

Air India-Vistara merger: The National Company Law Tribunal, Chandigarh Bench, on Thursday approved the merger of Tata Sons-owned Air India with Vistara. The NCLT has also allowed both airlines to start integrating their networks, human resources and fleet deployments.

Vistara is a joint venture of Tata Sons Private Limited and Singapore Airlines Limited (SIA), wherein Tata Sons holds 51% stake in the partnership and Singapore Airlines owns a 49% stake. The company is registered as TATA SIA Airlines Limited.

Singapore's flagship carrier announced its plan to merge Vistara and Air India in November 2022, in a bid to create a dominant full-service airline in the domestic and international markets.

According to the terms of the deal, autos-to-steel conglomerate Tata would hold 74.9% of the combined entity, while Singapore Airlines would own the remaining 25.1%.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) had already approved the merger in September 2023. In  March this year, Singapore's competition watchdog also approved the merger between Air India and Vistara. 

Vistara started commercial operations in January 2015 and has a fleet of 70 planes.

Apart from merging Air India and Vistara, the group is also in the process of merging its budget carriers Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India). Once both the mergers are complete, the Air India group will have a full-service carrier Air India and a low-cost airline Air India Express.

On Wednesday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said things are ‘so far so good’, and added that they are working with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on transfer of all new services upon the integration. 

In May, Wilson and Vistara's chief executive officer Vinod Kannan told their respective employees that the merger of Air India and Vistara will likely be completed by the end of 2024 or early 2025.

As part of the presentation made by Wilson and Kannan, the airlines told their employees that so far 120 pilots have been integrated by Vistara and Air India, and the airlines have completed the National Company Law Tribunal hearing on the proposed merger and are awaiting the official orders.

The airlines also announced that the merged entity Air India will soon launch South Asia's largest aviation academy and will also set up an aircraft maintenance, repair, and operations facility for aircraft in Bengaluru. SIA Engineering is the exclusive partner to help Air India with designing and conceptualising the outfit.