[Aditya]

Singapore Airlines has confirmed that it is in talks with India's Tata Group over a potential merger of Vistara airline, a joint venture between the two companies, and Air India -- the 100 per cent acquisition of which the Indian conglomerate has recently completed.

Tata has a 51 per cent stake in Vistara, while SIA holds 49 per cent.

It is unclear what stake, if any, SIA would have if Vistara merged into Air India, or whether fresh funds would be needed for the ailing Air India group, according to a report by The Straits Times.

The International Air Transport Association has noted that India will become the third-largest aviation market in the world - including international and domestic traffic - by around 2024.

The SIA sees the Vistara stake as an integral part of its multi-hub strategy, giving it access to important sources that complement its strong Singapore hub, said The Straits Times report.

Source: The Economic Times

[d-g-p]

Aviation sector is a tough battle with cut throat competition. Some kind of merger would help and complement each other. Air India has more slots in Important International Airports that would help Vistara.

[GTO]

Vistara arguably has a better brand image than Air India today. I hope the "Vistara" brand name would continue? I'm guessing the work culture at Vistara & Air India (government babu culture) would differ. Would be challenging for Vistara employees.

[Vishal.R]

This was very much expected after appointment of current Air India CEO, as it is more of new assignment given by SQ instead of new appointment by TATA.

[ajayc123]

An opportunity to take the service standards of Air India to the Singapore Airline levels. "Air India" carries the "India" branding, and I would love to see it stay.

[m8002?]

I recently flew Air India business class and can tell there was no deficiency in service. The staff did all they can to help passengers ( mainly senior citizens ).

What I found wanting is the old planes with lack of maintenance.

• The buttons to control the seats had a mind of their own when to recline or straighten.
• There were broken damaged panels covered by a tape

• The remote was not working for the infotainment system. And when it worked they had some DD era movies.

And the list goes on. They need to do a major overhaul of their fleet to compete with the other carriers.

[anjan_c2007]

Acquisitions and mergers are the order of the day. We have recently had several "weak" PSU banks merged into stronger ones. The HDFC and HDFC Bank are merging. But here as one can deduce at a first glance the PSU bank work culture and ethos remain after these PSU bank mergers. Also HDFC and HDFC Bank work culture is not much so varying.

But here you have an ex-Tata (there was nothing Tata other than the Maharaja mascot in Air India post it's becoming a PSU), then ex-PSU, now under Tata, merging with the Tata's homegrown Vistara.

The Air India-Vistara merger kindles memories of the erstwhile East and West German reunification, three decades ago. The West Germans would always be vocal during discussions saying that those from the East possess some sort of leftist upbringing, government employee like attitude and work culture, aversion to private enterprise and so on. The newer German generations are of course brought up as Germans and not West or East Germans and there is now a near fusion and coalescence of both erstwhile mindsets. I have personally been a part of such discussions while in Germany.

Hence for those from Air India, there are expected to be initial teething troubles, hiccups and differences due to variances in work culture and thinking of the newly merged entity/airline. It will require at least five plus years for the Air India employees to come to terms with the work pace and ethos of the new entity.

[no_fear]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Hence for those from Air India, there are expected to be initial teething troubles, hiccups and differences due to variances in work culture and thinking of the newly merged entity/airline. It will require at least five plus years for the Air India employees to come to terms with the work pace and ethos of the new entity.

I have a very contrarian view on this merger.

Tata needs Singapore Airlines (SIA) more than SIA needs Tata on running a ship shape airline. Vistara runs efficiently and as a world class airline (currently among the top 20 globally in latest Skytraxx rankings) due to SIA management controlling the company direction.

SIA is not going to wait 5 years to see how things pan out. They will do house cleaning and get Air India (AI) into ship shape in the next 2 years. The whole reason SIA wants to be present in India is to have overseas hubs and channel the Indian diaspora from the Middle East (ME) carriers to using Singapore Airlines (SQ).

Covid made SIA realize they cannot survive just being a hub at Changi but they have to diversify.

SIA management is brutal and ruthless - they take extreme pride in the SQ brand name (afterall SQ is the global brand of Singapore) and won't allow any deviation in the brand name being tarnished in any way.

AI chalta hain attitude, stained seats, broken In Flight Entertainment (IFE), non communication and No Saar, cannot help you attitude is going to get left in the dust.

[KungFuPanda]

The merger is the obvious way forward since it will give them pricing power for the topline, and bring in cost efficiencies at the bottom-line. The fact that they will have to up service is the only potential upside for the consumer. However, I am sure that my personal travel expenses will go up. Meh.

[thanixravindran]

Looks like Branding exercise carried out is in final phase -

Air India as one brand and Vistara to be dropped.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/bu...d-9556351.html

I feel they should have Air India as international brand and retain Vistara for domestic, of course only for full service.

[volkman10]

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Tata Sons (Tata) will merge Air India and Vistara, with SIA also investing $250 m in Air India as part of the transaction.

This would give SIA a 25.1% stake in an enlarged Air India group with a significant presence in all key market segments. SIA and Tata aim to complete the merger by March 2024, subject to regulatory approvals.





Goh Choon Phong, Singapore Airlines' CEO:

We will work together to support Air India’s transformation program, unlock its significant potential, and restore it to its position as a leading #airline on the global stage

[Theyota]

It is great to see the two partners further strengthening their relationship. They are making all the right noises from the beginning of Vistara until now. It is not easy for two giants to run a joint venture with all their egos. The minority shareholder Singapore Airlines seems to be in it for long term unlike Air Asia Bhd which neither had the resources nor a plan needed for a cutthroat market like India. It won’t be long before Air India will be bigger than Singapore Air+Scoot. It is a smart move on the part of Singapore Airlines to stay invested and have its piece of the pie when it starts paying off.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Theyota

It is great to see the two partners further strengthening their relationship. They are making all the right noises from the beginning of Vistara until now. It is not easy for two giants to run a joint venture with all their egos. The minority shareholder Singapore Airlines seems to be in it for long term unlike Air Asia Bhd which neither had the resources nor a plan needed for a cutthroat market like India. It won’t be long before Air India will be bigger than Singapore Air+Scoot. It is a smart move on the part of Singapore Airlines to stay invested and have its piece of the pie when it starts paying off.

+1 to that

In the early 1970s when Singapore Airlines, in its present form, was born the nascent airline, wishing to pursue service excellence looked to the then Tata run Air India as the source of its training and cabin service protocols. Glad the two are now working together and this time it will be Air India learning from Singapore Airlines. What a difference is made by a management run by beedi kings and bureaucrats. Singapore Airlines by geographical definition has limits to its growth. The Indian market is one route to sustain growth for the next 15 years.

https://qz.com/india/1021026/air-ind...cathay-pacific

[no_fear]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

In the early 1970s when Singapore Airlines, in its present form, was born the nascent airline, wishing to pursue service excellence looked to the then Tata run Air India as the source of its training and cabin service protocols. ]

@ V Narayan - the author of the article took inspiration from his fantasy to concoct the story. That article was used as source in several other online publications back in 2018-19 without checking the facts. There is no documented proof of SIA sourcing inspiration from Air India.

SIA was born from Malaysia Singapore airlines (callsign MSA) which was established in 1966 and split in 1972. MSA developed it's own in house protocols on customer service way back in the early 60s. After MSA split in 2 - Malaysian airlines and Mercury Singapore Airlines (Singapore wanted to keep the MSA initials), both airlines continued to actively collaborate and work to grow their brands.

The SQ girl branding was created by MSA in 1968. It was Pierre Balmain who designed the kebaya uniform and marketed the image globally in the 70s.

The whole start of the article is outright false and a fabrication - Mercury Singapore airlines was rebranded into Singapore airlines and kept going. No new airline was set up in 1970s.

In the early 1970s, the government of Singapore, led by prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, had a great idea. In order to attract investment into the little island nation, it thought of starting an international airline that would act as a kind of flying advertisement for Singapore and its world-class capabilities.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by no_fear

@ V Narayan - the author of the article took inspiration from his fantasy to concoct the story. That article was used as source in several other online publications back in 2018-19 without checking the facts. There is no documented proof of SIA sourcing inspiration from Air India.

SIA was born from Malaysia Singapore airlines (callsign MSA) which was established in 1966 and split in 1972. MSA developed it's own in house protocols on customer service way back in the early 60s. After MSA split in 2 - Malaysian airlines and Mercury Singapore Airlines (Singapore wanted to keep the MSA initials), both airlines continued to actively collaborate and work to grow their brands.

The SQ girl branding was created by MSA in 1968. It was Pierre Balmain who designed the kebaya uniform and marketed the image globally in the 70s.

The whole start of the article is outright false and a fabrication - Mercury Singapore airlines was rebranded into Singapore airlines and kept going. No new airline was set up in 1970s.

In the early 1970s, the government of Singapore, led by prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, had a great idea. In order to attract investment into the little island nation, it thought of starting an international airline that would act as a kind of flying advertisement for Singapore and its world-class capabilities.

I shall respectfully disagree with you totally and completely. I attached that article only as a reference. This was a news item back in the 1970s which I clearly recall reading back then given my interest in all things aviation. Unlike a lot of others on social media I take pains to write only what I know reasonably to be a fact. Singapore Airlines in the early 1970s had asked JRD if Air India would train their cabin crew. This I read in papers back then. As for the evolution of SQ through MAS, most of us know that story.