Over 2.7 lakh passengers issued new tickets ahead of Air India-Vistara merger

Over 2.7 lakh passengers who booked Vistara tickets have been issued new tickets for travel on Air India on and after Nov 12.

The Tata Group has confirmed that in the coming few months, passengers who booked Vistara tickets will continue to receive the same travel experience in all aspects including aircraft, crew, and onboard service.

AI’s chief digital and transformation officer, Satya Ramaswamy also said that Vistara customers can look forward to an even better experience on the website and apps of AI.

“We have transformed AI’s digital arena and for the first time, AI has filed for patents in this field. We are soon going to launch a one-click booking facility, instead of the multiple clicks required (across most airlines globally). While it is potentially possible to eventually have one website and app for AI and AI Express, that is not a plan as of now,” Ramaswamy said on Oct 22.

Talking about the upcoming merger with Vistara, Ramaswamy said that most of the systems have been migrated to AI and the few remaining will either happen either by Nov 12 or after that.

“More than 2.7 lakh passenger reservations of Vistara have been migrated to AI. Over 45 lakh Vistara loyalty program members are being migrated to the AI loyalty programme. In all there are over 140 systems, a majority of which have been migrated,” he said.

Following the merger, the company will have to mainly focus on transferring reservations and loyalty programs, accounting, employee payroll, and airport systems on D-Day and schedule continuity.

“There is a significant effort to comprehensively address Vistara customers’ experience across all digital systems post-merger," he said.

"Thanks to AI’s digital transformation, the airline now has among the best websites and apps for any airline globally. We are working on a new inflight entertainment (IFE) system. While on narrow body planes, we will provide content that passengers can watch on their personal electronic devices, the wide body will have back-of-the-seat systems,” Ramaswamy who headed the digital transformation at AI was quoted as saying.

Air India's efforts to improve are one of the toughest challenges in today's aviation industry. After years of neglect as a public sector company, its planes — though safe to fly — lacked comfort for passengers.

Even though the Tata Group took over Air India more than 2.5 years ago, global supply issues have delayed the process of upgrading things like seats and in-flight entertainment.

However, Tata's strength in technology have played a big role in Air India's digital improvements, even though upgrading the older planes to meet world-class standards will still take a few more years.