As the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) published the monthly summary for August, Vistara pushed SpiceJet out to occupy the top spot in load factor charts. Not just this, the airline also pushed Air India out of its second spot. Though both airlines had the same market share, Vistara carried five thousand additional passengers than Air India. Fifteen days ago, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) gave its nod for the merger of Vistara with Air India.
This made me think of the famous dialogue from the popular movie Chak De! India where the coach (role played by Shahrukh Khan) tells the team before the final match about the “most important seventy minutes of their life, the most special seventy minutes and these which cannot be taken away by anyone”.
I would rate Vistara to be in that mode. The original announcement of Vistara with Air India stated that the merger would be completed by March 2024 – a timeline which may not be met and get pushed by a couple of months. Vistara has had its own challenges since its first flight in 2015. This includes expensive reconfiguration, not once but twice. The carrier which started with a premium outlook received a lot of flak for its curtailment of service and induction of former Jet Airways B737 in its fleet. The service levels have since returned to longer sectors and the B737s are out of the fleet.
Multiple reports have indicated that the entire staff would be absorbed in Air India, yet there have been reports of tests being conducted for the fitment and so on. Understandably such incidents put pressure on the staff when the future is uncertain and this is where I draw parallels with the movie. These are the special seven months for the airline which cannot be taken away by anyone. The livery, the service, the uniform, the office – all will be gone in due course of time but until then it is a place to perform and perform like there is no tomorrow – literally and figuratively. Come next year, there won’t be anyone who would look at this year’s numbers to compare against or look at the bottomline or topline – it will all be one merged entity. So why not perform and go out with a bang? This is exactly what Vistara is doing, I believe.
With more and more passengers flying Vistara as evident from the numbers, the merger will make more passengers miss the brand and it will be for Air India to up its game and match the standards of Vistara. The integration of cabin crew and pairing will be for another day to solve to ensure that service levels and standards are taken a notch above from what they are in Air India at the moment. For now, Vistara can bask in the glory of its achievements and keep performing, at times better than its future parent.
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Yes, Vistara must up the ante for Air India. A superior brand being sacrificed for a lesser one. Brand does not come by size but by service excellence. Sanjay Singh
Vistara is a well respected brand although it might have its drawbacks too. My question is were they ever planning to turn profitable or just continue the act of social service forever ?
Nothing against them but at the end of the day you are a business, isn’t it.