The integrated entity of Air India and Vistara is scheduled to operate its first flight from Doha to Mumbai at 12.15 am on Tuesday, according to a source.

Vistara will be merged with Air India on Monday night, and from Tuesday onwards, the Vistara flight code will change from ‘UK’ to ‘AI2XXX’.

On the international segment, the first flight of the integrated entity will be AI2286 from Doha to Mumbai, scheduled to take off at 12.15 am on Tuesday. On the domestic route, the first scheduled flight will be AI2984 from Mumbai to Delhi at 1.20 am, the source told PTI.

Both are scheduled Vistara flights that will be operated by Air India post-merger.

Meanwhile, the last flight of Vistara is scheduled to be UK115 from Delhi to Singapore, which will depart at 11.45 pm on Monday.

Both, Air India and Vistara, are part of the Tata Group. Vistara is a joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines.

During the day, Vistara pilots made in-flight announcements about the merger and said passengers could continue to enjoy the familiar Vistara experience on the Air India aircraft.

Meanwhile, sharing a short video of a Vistara aircraft taxiing for take-off on X, the country’s largest IndiGo bid goodbye to the airline.

“As an unforgettable legacy takes its final flight, a new journey on the horizon awaits. Goodbye, @airvistara. Here’s #ToLimitlessPossibilities ahead. #goIndiGo,” the airline said in a post. 

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By the end of December 2023, Mumbai would have an equal number of domestic departures as Delhi which currently has 78 daily domestic departures. File

Notwithstanding the uncertainty over the brand name continuing after its merger with Air India by April 2024, Vistara, the joint venture of Tata Sons & Singapore Airlines (SIA), continues to scale up its operations, mostly from Mumbai. 

The airline’s CEO said more international flights would be operated from Mumbai, which has become Vistara’s sizeable hub, in the coming months as more aircraft join the fleet.

“Mumbai will remain a focus of growth because we have added so much domestic capacity to help grow our international connections,” said CEO Vinod Kannan. “Today, we operate 12 international flights from Mumbai as compared with 7 from Delhi and more international flights will be added from Mumbai in the coming months,” he added.

He said Vistara, which currently has 54 daily domestic departures from Mumbai, will increase the number of departures to 67 from August. By the end of December 2023, Mumbai would have an equal number of domestic departures as Delhi which currently has 78 daily domestic departures. 

Vistara will add 10 more aircraft including three Boeing 787s by March 2024 to take the fleet size to 70 by the time of merger. And most of these aircraft will be deployed in the international sector including Europe, Mr. Kannan said.

Stating that a consultant had been onboarded for the branding part of the combined entity, and no decision had been taken on the future of brand Vistara, he said, “We continue to do what we do best. We will continue to add destinations, aircraft and celebrate the wins.”

“We have not paused or taken a breather. Ultimately, we have to come up to certain level where the combined entity can together move to the next level,”

He said the airline was on track for the merger and various approvals were being received. He said out of the four airlines of the Tata Group, only two Air Operator Certificates (AOC) would be retained, one for the full-service carrier and the other for the low-cost carrier. 

“Whether there would be a sub-brand or there will be a merger of the brands and whether there will be one brand, these are still being discussed,” he said.

“But in the aviation context there are not so many examples of people running sub brands successfully and doing well. So, as much as we love our brand, these things are important,” he added.