Vistara is nimble enough to make course corrections, its CEO Vinod Kannan said on Wednesday. The full service carrier, which is in the process of getting merged with Air India, recently faced significant disruptions due to pilot woes and now, the operations are getting stabilised.
Speaking at a session at the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2024 in the national capital, Kannan said the merger is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The merger process has started and Kannan said the merger is for growth and not for cutting costs.
There is “immense flexibility” for the group whether it is full or low cost services and “we are in a good position,” the Air India CEO and MD said at the CAPA India Aviation Summit here. According to him, Air India will be retrofitting more than 100 aircraft and has also ordered around 25,000 seats as part of retrofitting the planes.
According to him, India is a unique market and there is space for full service carriers in general. Vistara is “nimble enough to make course corrections and humble enough…,” he said. On the merger, Kannan said the people fitment process for staff, who are not in the operations side, is expected to be completed by month end or next month.
The merger is awaiting approval from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
Vistara, a joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines, started commercial operations in January 2015 and it has a fleet of 70 planes.
