Vistara to operate last flights today before merging with Air India

The passengers flying Vistara’s Mumbai -Delhi 10.50pm flight and international passengers flying to Singapore from Delhi at 11.45pm will be the last ones to fly on the Vistara flights as the airline operationally merges with Air India today.

The airline that commenced its operation on January 9, 2015, quickly rose to be a preferred airline for many Indian passengers.

Vistara was India’s last airline to launch as a full-service carrier, and experts believe that over the past nine and a half years, it did an incredible job positioning itself as a premium carrier. It was also the first domestic airline to introduce “Premium Economy” class, a move that helped the airline to be a preferred one.

An Air India official said, “Air India is undertaking multiple steps to ensure a smooth on-ground experience for customers as Vistara merges with Air India on November 12, 2024.”

The preparations, however, began months ago when Air India announced that starting September 3, passengers would not be able to book Vistara tickets for dates on or after November 12.

“In the first month after the merger, nearly 115,000 customers who had purchased Vistara tickets pre-merger are expected to fly on unified Air India,” a second airline official said.

To be sure, post the merger, Vistara aircraft will be operated by Air India and will be identified by a special four-digit Air India code beginning with the digit “2”. For instance, UK 955 will become AI 2955, helping customers identify the Vistara flight or aircraft.

Air India has maintained that as of now the routes, flight schedule and crew operated by Vistara will continue to be the same, alongside the Vistara in-flight experience that includes the product and services.

Officials close to the merger say that the Vistara livery is expected to continue at least till May 2025.

Asked about the airline’s preparation for handling passengers on the first day of the merged Air India, the first official mentioned above said, “Air India has deployed additional resources across touchpoints in India and has also worked with airport staff and security agencies to undertake a few steps to help the passengers.”

This, he said, include help desk kiosks at the curbside, before terminal building’s entry at airports, deploy customer support staff wearing ‘How may I assist you?’

“This staff will be wearing an Air India and Vistara branded t-shirts for support so that passengers in need of help are easily able to identify them,” he said.

Another official agreed that there were chances of passengers not knowing about the merged airline arriving at the airports.

“We have worked with airport security to guide passengers with old Vistara tickets to the nearest help desk or to Air India customer support staff,” he said.

He also stated that, progressively, Vistara airport ticketing offices will become Air India offices and Vistara check-in terminals will become Air India.

“Vistara Check-in counters at key airports have been converted to Air India while a few may be work under progress,” he said.

The airline has also deployed customer advisory on Self-Service Kiosks stating, “For Vistara flights under code AI2, please select Air India for check-in starting 12-Nov-2024.”

For international airports, “Directions and information for customers will be placed near check-in desks, Customers calling the Vistara contact centre will be automatically directed to Air India representatives, who will ensure a seamless experience during this transition.

Over the last few months, 270,000 customers who had booked Vistara flights have been migrated to Air India and have been notified about the change, a data from the airline revealed.

Over 4.5 million Vistara loyalty programme members are being migrated to Air India’s loyalty programme, it stated.

The merged Air India will open connections to over 90 domestic and international destinations and over 800 more destinations through codeshare and interline partners.