In a step to bring all the Airlines holding shares by TATA Sons under one roof, AirAsia India and Air India Express Integration proceedings have started.
Tata Sons top management of AirAsia India and Air India have started discussions for the integration of staff, and aircraft quality and safety checks, along with other issues. Also, this is to attain synergies and reduce operational costs.
Air India Express was launched as a low-cost carrier in April 2005, with the aim of providing convenient connectivity to short/medium-haul international routes in the Gulf and South-East Asia. Malaysian budget airline AirAsia Group Bhd is a minor stakeholder in AirAsia India. Recently Tatas took control of AirAsia India by increasing its stake to 84% from 51% to consolidate its control and form a single company.
Also, TATA Sons Ltd is yet to conclude negotiations with Singapore Airlines (SIA) on combining the schedules of Vistara and Air India. Tata has a 51% stake in Vistara and SIA holds 49%.
Experts define the integration move as creating a single aviation company. It is to be remembered that Tata Sons regained 100% control of Air India in October 2021 by bidding ₹.18,000 crore. Air India Express is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India. Air India was founded nearly 90 years back by the TATA group itself.
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Currently Air India Express currently operates a fleet of twenty-four B737-800s. AirAsia India operates twenty-eight A320-200s and five A320-200N (with eight A321-200NX to be delivered) exclusively on domestic routes.
It has to be now observed as to how TATA Sons Ltd will evolve from the Aviation losses that is a common phenomenon by all the aviation companies across the world. Also, TATA is known for its affordable price chart in the Indian aviation market. After integration, Tata will have to work on operational costs and other factors that affect the passenger charges and win the competition. It is believed that the operations might resume from the new year, that is January 2022 under one platform.