Tata Sons to unify all airline brands under Air India: Report

After the consolidation, the group will have Air India as its only airline brand

Tata Sons started discussions with its joint venture partner Singapore Airlines (SIA) to bring all its airline companies under recently acquired Air India, The Economic Times reported, a move that will push the carrier to second place in the country in terms of fleet and market share.

Tata Sons owns Vistara, AirAsia India, Air India and Air India Express airlines.

Sources in the know said Tata Sons will make Air India the only airline brand in its group following this merger and will have one low-cost and one full-service airline under it. An official announcement is expected in a week.

Read | AirAsia sells remaining India entity stake to Air India

Vistara is expected to be dropped, top executives told ET. SIA will have a minority stake in Air India, at around 20-25 per cent and some board members of Vistara will be inducted on the board of Air India. The Tata conglomerate bought had last month consolidated AirAsia India and Air India Express.

This merger is likely to give Air India a fleet of about 233 aircraft and will streamline operations and cut operating costs. This is likely to be completed within a year, with Air India CEO Campbell Wilson at the helm, along with Nipun Aggarwal, AirAsia India CEO Sunil Bhaskaran and Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh.

Tata Sons and SIA own Vistara in a 51-49 per cent joint venture. SIA has agreed to the unification plan weighing India’s importance as a market to Vistara. “SIA has reaped benefits from Vistara and realises that cost of scaling up Vistara will be significantly higher as compared to Air India, which already has a significant size,” a source is quoted as saying by ET.