Air India to let go of Vistara brand post merger: CEO Campbell Wilson
2 min read . Updated: 27 Feb 2023, 02:27 PM IST
Premium- The Air India CEO further said the airline has ‘enormous’ potential and efforts are on to make the group a significant international player
Tata group-owned Air India will let go of Vistara brand after the merger, as the Air India brand is more popular globally, Chief Executive Campbell Wilson said on Monday. Wilson also said the list price of a record 470 aircraft, ordered from Boeing and Airbus a few days back, is $70 billion.
Wilson also said that Air India plans to fund the order with a combination of resources, including internal cash flow, shareholder equity and sale-and-leaseback of aircraft.
Addressing the media virtually, Wilson said the process of integration of Vistara with Air India is underway and is now awaiting approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
The integration of Air India Express and AIX Connect, earlier known as AirAsia India, is also underway.
The Air India CEO further said the airline has "enormous" potential and efforts are on to make the group a significant international player.
On 14 February, Air India announced placing an order for 470 planes, 250 are from Airbus and 220 from Boeing.
"We have committed to a historic order of new aircraft that will start entering the fleet from the end of this year through the end of the decade, to both transform the fleet and power significant network and capacity expansion," Wilson said.
"We don't have a timeline... will evaluate the market," Wilson said with respect to exercising the option to purchase another 370 planes.
In an interaction with NDTV, the Air India CEO spoke about the pee-gate incident, saying the airlines' had learnt lessons from the incident of a drunk flyer urinating on an elderly passenger.
"There are things that we didn't do well. We have learnt lessons," Wilson was quoted as saying in the interview.
The Air India CEO was referring to the New York-Delhi flight incident that happened on 26 November. Accused Shankar Mishra allegedly unzipped his pants and urinated on a 70-year-old woman co-passenger in the business class.