Air India on Wednesday said flights operated with Vistara aircraft will have numbers starting with the prefix 'AI2' after the merger next month while Vistara's planes, crew and service will continue to operate as before. The Tata Group-owned full service carrier also emphasised that the Vistara experience will remain post merger. The merger of Vistara -- a joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines -- with Air India is scheduled for November 12 that will mark a major consolidation in the Indian aviation space after the integration of AIX Connect with Air India Express. There are concerns in certain quarters on whether Vistara passengers will continue to get the same services like now, post merger as Air India, which is in the transformation phase, has been facing certain service issues in recent times. An Air India spokesperson on Wednesday said the teams of Air India and Vistara have been working hard for over a year to ensure that the merger of the legal and regulated ...
Singapore Airlines on Friday said it has received approval from the Indian government for the foreign direct investment as part of the proposed merger of Vistara with Air India, a deal that will create one of the world's largest airline groups. With the clearance in place, the merger that will see Singapore Airlines acquiring a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India, is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The proposed merger was announced in November 2022. Air India is owned by Tata Group and Vistara is a 51:49 joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines. In a regulatory filing on Friday, Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it has received approval from the Government of India for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the enlarged Air India as part of the proposed merger. "The FDI approval, together with anti-trust and merger control clearances and approvals, as well as other governmental and regulatory approvals received to-date, represent a significant development toward
Recycling and a broader focus on the environment, including sustainable aviation fuel, has become a much bigger focus for airlines
Passengers with minor injuries have been offered $10,000 and those with serious injuries can discuss an offer to meet their specific needs
One passenger died of a suspected heart attack and dozens were injured after Singapore Airline Flight SQ321
A British passenger suffered a fatal cardiac arrest, and many were injured when a Singapore Airlines flight encountered severe turbulence mid-air. The plane made an emergency landing in Bangkok
The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Flight SQ321 that was rocked by severe turbulence on Tuesday climbed and descended rapidly twice in 62 seconds, stunning the passengers with one dying of heart attack, as the aircraft flew over the Irrawaddy Delta region of Myanmar, it emerged on Saturday. One passenger -- 73-year-old Briton Geoffrey Kitchen -- died, and dozens were injured in the incident. It is the first SIA aviation accident involving a fatality since the SQ006 crash in Taiwan in October 2000. As the flight, which was heading to Singapore from London, experienced sudden severe turbulence over the Irrawaddy Basin during the breakfast service, the pilot declared a medical emergency and diverted the plane carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew members to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, where the plane made an emergency landing at 3.45 pm (4.45 pm Singapore time). Granular flight data from flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows that the Boeing 777-300ER climbed and descended rapidly twi
Twenty-two passengers from a Singapore Airlines flight that was hit by turbulence May 21, have spinal cord injuries and six have brain and skull injuries, according to media reports. Twenty people remained in intensive care, although none were life-threatening cases, reported The Straits Times, citing Dr Adinun Kittiratanapaibool, director of Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital. The oldest patient at the hospital is 83, while the youngest is a two-year-old child who suffered a concussion. He added that there were 40 patients from Flight SQ321 at the hospital. The London to Singapore flight made an emergency landing in Bangkok. Nearly 60 passengers were injured after the flight on May 21 encountered "sudden extreme turbulence over the Irrawaddy Basin at 37,000 feet about 10 hours after departure". Forty-six passengers and two crew members aboard the SIA flight remain in the Thai capital for medical treatment. Sixty-five passengers and two crew members were still in Bangkok, said SIA in
Singapore Air "will continue to review our processes" to prioritise the safety of crew and passengers, the airline said
More than 100 people had required medical care immediately after the flight landed in Bangkok
The Singapore Airlines has been ordered to pay Rs 2,13,585 to Telangana's DGP Ravi Gupta and his wife over malfunction in their automatic recliner seats in the business class
Singapore Airlines on Tuesday said the proposed merger of Air India and Vistara "remains on course" and is subject to approvals from regulators as well as competition authorities in several jurisdictions. Once the merger is complete, Singapore Airlines (SIA) will have a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India. Currently, Singapore Airlines owns a 49 per cent shareholding in Vistara and the remaining 51 per cent stake is with the Tata Group. "The proposed merger of Air India and Vistara remains on course, with the Competition Commission of India approving the transaction in September 2023. "It remains subject to foreign direct investment approval, as well as approvals from other regulators and competition authorities in several jurisdictions including those from India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Civil Aviation, and National Company Law Tribunal, and the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore," SIA Group said in a release on Tuesday. While announcing the .
Air India and Singapore Airlines will ensure minimum capacity on various domestic and international routes, including Delhi-Sydney and Delhi-Paris, as part of commitments made to fair trade regulator CCI to address possible competition concerns arising out of the Vistara merger. Competition Commission of India (CCI), on September 1, approved the proposed merger of Vistara with Air India under a deal wherein Singapore Airlines will also acquire a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India. Certain competition concerns due to the proposed merger were raised by the watchdog and to address them, the airlines have given certain commitments with respect to the merger. As per the commitments, Air India has voluntarily offered to maintain "minimum capacity/ supply level" on certain overlapping O&D (Origin & Destination) domestic and overseas routes. They are Bhubaneshwar-Delhi, Bengaluru-Guwahati, Cochin-Delhi, Delhi-Thiruvananthapuram, Amritsar-Delhi, Bhubaneshwar-Mumbai and Bengaluru-Delhi in
People in the know said that while CCI's scrutiny is unlikely to have any material impact on the business of the airlines, it could affect the timeline of the merger
Singapore Airlines on Monday announced the promotion of Tan Kai Ping, a senior officer extensively involved in the proposed merger of Air India and Vistara, to Executive Vice President of Operations and Chief Operations Officer. The merger between Air India and full-service carrier Vistara is a key plank of SIA's multi-hub strategy, the Singapore flag carrier said in a release on Monday. On November 29 last year, Tata Group announced the merger of the two airlines under a deal where SIA will also acquire a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India. Tan, who was extensively involved in the proposed merger of India's flag carrier and Vistara, also spearheaded the SIA Group's successful fundraising efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic. He led a multi-year initiative to strengthen the group's financial resilience, optimise working capital, and build the capacity and capability of SIA's Finance Division to meet the future needs of the business. Tan, currently Executive Vice President of Finance
The airline said it could ramp up operations at short notice when demand for air travel surged after Singapore fully reopened its borders in April 2022
With a single airline brand, Tatas aim for quick business turnaround
The financial outlay for the Singapore Airlines Group under the proposed Vistara-Air India merger is "minimal when considered against the fact that it is acquiring a 25.1 per cent in interest in the enlarged Air India", according to a regulatory filing. Singapore Airlines (SIA), which commenced services to India more than 50 years ago, expects to immediately gain exposure to an entity that is four to five times larger in scale post the merger. On Tuesday, Tata group and SIA announced the merger of Vistara with Air India and subject to regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to be completed by March 2024. The financial exposure of the SIA Group for the merger would effectively be the aggregate of the value of its 49 per cent interest in Vistara and the cash consideration of Rs 2,058.5 crore. "It is noted that due to losses sustained since 2013, Vistara has zero carrying value in the SIA Group financial statements as at 30 September 2022," SIA said in the filing to the Singapore .
Back in 1994, Tata group and Singapore Airlines (SIA) made efforts to set up a joint venture airline in India. Six years later, they again tried to enter the country's aviation market, this time by teaming up to acquire stakes in Air India. However, the two attempts did not take-off. Finally, they realised their dream as Vistara took to the Indian skies in January 2015. On Tuesday, Tata group announced the merger of Vistara with Air India. The name 'Vistara' is derived from the Sanskrit word 'Vistaar' which means 'a limitless expanse'. Vistara, which is now the country's second largest airline in terms of domestic market share, operated its first flight on January 9, 2015, from Delhi to Mumbai. In October, Vistara had a market share of 9.2 per cent. At present, Vistara connects 43 domestic and overseas destinations, operates more than 260 flights daily. It has a fleet of 54 aircraft and close to 4,500 employees. According to the airline's website, in 2013, the two legendary bran
The Air India-Vistara merger is expected to be completed within a year after getting all approvals