Vistara planes to replace Air India's on metro-to-metro routes after merger

Vistara's aircraft, having better interiors, will replace Air India's planes on major metro-to-metro routes between Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru after merger of both the carriers next month, sources privy to the development said on Thursday.

“Air India aircraft are being refurbished one by one. Until that process is complete, it makes sense to deploy Vistara planes on our high-revenue metro-to-metro routes between Delhi, Mumbai and Benglauru,” a source said.

Air India's planes will be shifted to other domestic routes.

Air India had last month announced that it has started upgrading its 27 “legacy” A320neo planes, and the entire process would be completed by mid-2025.

Once the narrowbody planes are done, it would begin retrofitting 40 “legacy” widebody planes.

Vistara will be merged into Air India on November 11.

However, the duty rosters of cabin crew members of Air India and Vistara will continue to remain different for some time.

This is being done to ensure that the experience of loyal Vistara passengers is not affected.

It will take a significant time to change the livery, seat colours, etc, on Vistara planes.

The demand for seats on Vistara's planes that operate on metro-to-metro routes has been quite strong, especially due to corporate customers, a source mentioned.

“The airline would not like to lose that customer segment,” the source added.