Air India-Vistara Merger: Employees To Be Deputed In Phases From June

As part of Vistara's merger with Air India, employees will be transitioned in phases starting in June, according to Chief Executive Officers Campbell Wilson and Vinod Kannan's town hall address on Monday, parts of which have been reviewed by NDTV Profit.

This employee movement will be in line with the end-state roles and structures in place and will move via secondment closure, they said, meaning Vistara staff will be deputed to Air India. However, a minimum viable team would continue in Vistara in order to ensure business continuity. This will be in place until the surrender of the air operator certificate.

According to the CEOs' addresses, people integration remains a key part of this merger.

Addressing the flying staff integration, the town hall mentioned that an integrated pilot upgrade sequence has been operationalised at the group level to enable career upgrade opportunities. Around 120 pilots, too, have been seconded between Vistara and Air India group.

For the non-flying staff integration, more than 60 UK employees have been seconded to Air India and assessments for around 7,000 have been completed.

In order to ensure functional integration, even 'myIDTravel' has been enabled for employees across Air India and Vistara.

According to the town hall address, the completion of the merger process has been targeted by the end of this year. This development comes after progress has been observed on several fronts, like anti-trust approvals received in several geographies, applications filed for approval for SIA investment in a merged entity and so on.

Air India's leadership team will continue to have Wilson as CEO and managing director of Air India Group. Kannan will continue as CEO of Vistara and Chief Integration Officer, and Aloke Singh will also continue as CEO of Air India Express.