The Tatas are planning a mother of mergers — the bane of Indian aviation

Some of the biggest airlines in the world today can trace their history to mergers. Delta Air Lines digested NorthWest within itself, United and Continental merged, and American Airlines swallowed US Airways whole.

But `merger’ is a dreaded word in Indian aviation. The Jet Airways-Air Sahara, and Kingfisher Airlines-Air Deccan mergers resulted in utter confusion and ended on a disastrous note. The challenges of the Indian Airlines-Air India merger continue apace even as Air India has been sold off to the Tatas.

This hasn’t stopped the Tata group from looking at another merger: that of Vistara (a Tata-Singapore Airlines joint venture) with Air India (AI). This comes after another Tata merger that is already in the works, that of AirAsia India with Air India Express.

For the first time, Singapore Airlines (SIA) laid to rest speculations about the merger with a stock market filing that informed about the on-going talks.

The Jet Airways-Jetlite merger was never completed in the true sense. Jetlite continued to be a separate entity with a separate Air Operating Permit (AOP) right till the last day of operations. While Jet Airways passengers saw the 9W code, Jetlite operations continued with the S2 code and its call sign.

Kingfisher Airlines-Air Deccan was a reverse merger, which was done so that Kingfisher could use Air Deccan’s AOP to fly international routes as it did not have the required five years of experience to fly international.

The Tata Group currently holds 100 percent of Air India and 51 percent of Vistara. However, a closer look shows that Talace, the special company formed to bid for Air India, owns Air India, while Vistara is owned by Tata Sons, the group’s parent company.

So how will the Vistara-SIA merger be engineered? Will SIA get stake in Talace, and will Vistara be purchased by Talace? Or will SIA have a stake in Air India? Time will have answers to each of these questions. What’s important is that Tata's aviation business is sitting on a lot of assets, which makes Vistara an interesting partnership for SIA.

Air India and Vistara remain the only two carriers to operate wide body aircraft in India. Between them, they have established routes and slots at busy airports like Singapore, London, New York, and San Francisco. However, these planes cannot be inducted into the fleet quickly. SpiceJet has abandoned its wide-bodied aspirations even as IndiGo plans to induct wet-leased wide body aircraft.

As a government entity, Air India has traditionally benefited the most from the allocation of bilateral rights. Now a private enterprise, it has embarked upon utilising most of those rights by adding planes. Vistara has also been able to make a lot of gains after the demise of Jet Airways.

At many airports across the country, the combined Tata Group offering is bigger than IndiGo, which definitely puts pressure on the latter. Add to that the Tatas’ complimentary meals versus the revised pricing of IndiGo’s in-flight meal options, and people could tend to prefer a Tata carrier.

17/10/22 Ameya Joshi/Moneycontrol

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Will have one airline with two platforms: N Chandrasekaran

The Tata Group is looking to consolidate its airline business, transforming it into ‘one airline with two platforms’, according to Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran.

Speaking at the Lokmat Maharashtrian of the year Award 2022, Chandrasekaran also said that the idea is to make a ‘world leading airline of scale’.

Asked if the Tata Group will look at consolidating the business which at present comprises four airlines – Air India, Air India Express, Vistara, Air Asia – Chandrasekaran said: “Essentially, we want to have a very strong airline. I have already said that Air India is a dream for Indians and it will always be India’s airline.”

“We will definitely have both full service and LCC, but we want to make it a world-leading airline of scale where Indians are able to fly everywhere. It’s a long journey. We will have to work on many aspects of the airline and we are working at great speed. Essentially, we will have one airline with two platforms,” Chandrasekaran added.

The talks of getting Air India and Vistara and Air India Express and Air Asia India have been doing the rounds since the past several weeks.

“We are working on HR, technology, on modernisation of the fleet, engine, maintenance and safety; we are working on all aspects. But at the end of the day Air India has great people. And they all want to make Air India a proud airline. It’s a question of few years,” Chandrasekaran added.

12/10/22 Financial Express

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'No Illegality': Kerala High Court Dismisses Air India Express Pilots' Plea Seeking Re-Engagement After Retirement

The Kerala High Court on Friday dismissed the petitions of three retired pilots who had approached the court seeking re-engagement on a contract basis with the Air India Express Ltd. In 2020, the contract appointments of the petitioners had been terminated.

Justice Anu Sivaraman at the outset observed that the Air India subsidiary is no longer a public sector undertaking after privatisation and therefore the issuance of public law remedy in the nature of a writ against it cannot be sought now.

The court added that the only question which remains would be as to the legality of the order of the termination passed by Air India Express Ltd whenit was a PSU. 

Observing that since the petitioners were contract employees who had been re-engaged after their retirement, the court said the termination of their appointment would depend on the terms and conditions of the contract.

"If that be so, the termination of a contract simplicitor by following the conditions provided in the contract would not, according to me, give rise to a cause of action to the petitioners to challenge the order of termination on the ground that it is arbitrary or illegal," said Justice Sivaraman.

The bench noted that the apex court in several decisions has held that termination of a contractual appointment would not be vitiated if the terms of the contract permitted such prior termination.

The writ petitions were filed in the Court challenging the notices issued to the petitioners intimating the discontinuance of their contractual engagements as Trainee Captain/Captain (Flying Officer) under Air India Express Ltd.

The petitioners, represented by Advocates Santhosh Mathew, Arun Thomas, Karthika Maria, Anil Sebastien Pulickel, Abi Benny Areeckal, Leah Rachel Ninan, Mathew Nevin Thomas, and Karthik Rajagopal, argued that they were highly experienced pilots and had been appointed on contract basis in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively, with the contracts being renewed time and again.

The court was told the petitioners were served with termination notices in August 2020 citing the prevailing civil aviation scenario and one months' salary was paid to them in lieu of one month's notice.

It was submitted by the counsels that although the requests by the petitioners for retention had been rejected, there had been an undertaking held out to them that the airline would hire them back before opening the positions held by them to other applicants, as soon as there are reasonable signs of demand revival. However, the pleas said, in total contravention to the same, employment notices were issued, and the age limit of 55 years as on Januuary 1, 2022 was fixed, thus barring the petitioners, who are in their 60s, from applying for the post.

08/10/22 Navya Benny/Live Law.in

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Who is Sunil Bhaskaran, the Tata Group veteran who could head Air India Express and AirAsia India merged venture?

The Tata Group will soon embark on the process to consolidate its airline holdings in India. As part of the process, Air India Express and AirAsia India are expected to be merged into a new lost-cost carrier by 2024. The frontrunner for leading this new venture is Sunil Bhaskaran, sources told Business Standard.

Bhaskaran, the chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) at AirAsia India, is a Tata Group veteran with over 35 years of experience at the Indian multinational conglomerate. A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi and the Indian Institute of Management-Kolkata, Bhaskaran went to INSEAD’s CEDEP, also known as The European Centre for Executive Development, for General Management and Executive Development.

After completing his PGDM in Finance and Marketing from IIM-K, Bhaskaran joined Tata Steel in1987. During his tenure, Bhaskaran held various responsibilities and roles like Marketing Head, Branch head, Executive Assistant to the Director of Marketing, and more. In 2002, he was promoted to the position of Principal Executive Officer, Vice President and Corporate Quality Head at Tata International Limited.

Just over three years later, Bhaskaran returned to Tata Steel in the position of Executive in-Charge (Global Wires Business) before being promoted to Vice President (Corporate Services) in 2013. In November 2018, Bhaskaran was made the CEO and MD of the new AirAsia joint venture between Tata Sons and AirAsia Berhad.

Bhaskaran is also a co-chair of the Confederation of Indian Industries – National Committee on Civil Aviation, an invitee of the All India Management Association Council (AIMA), and Chairman of the TATA Network Forum - South. Bhaskaran is also the Founder Director of Jamshedpur Football Club, a team in the Indian Super League.

08/10/22 CNBCTV18.com 

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