Tata Group gets key task done to facilitate merger of four airlines

Tata Group airlines have concluded the harmonisation of the operating procedures across its key functions, including harmonisation of the supporting manuals across all four carriers, reaching an important milestone in the merger of four airlines into two.

The first group consists of Air India and Vistara, which are full-service carriers, while the second group includes Air Asia India and Air India Express, which are low-cost carriers.

Over the last 18 months, a team of more than 100 members have worked to align on the best practices and adopt common operating procedures. The result of this will be two separate manuals for the full-service carrier and the low-cost carrier.

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"This is an important milestone in the merger of the Tata Group airlines and we are grateful for the support received from the Ministry of Civil Aviation in terms of timely clearances for the merger process. We are also grateful to DGCA for their continuous guidance, systematic review and approval of the harmonized operating manuals. DGCA has guided our teams with a safety-first change management approach which is congruent with the safety-first priorities of the TATA Group," said Campbell Wilson, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Air India.

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He further added, “The live tracker created by the Flight Standards Directorate of DGCA with a dedicated team for continuous monitoring of the progress of the harmonisation process has been instrumental in achieving the task in a time-bound manner.”

Air India and group companies are initiating the necessary crew training to action the harmonized processes, which will be another step in the direction towards building the new Air India and Air India Express.