A file picture of Vistara’s CEO Vinod Kannan
| Photo Credit: KAMAL NARANG
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) has granted conditional approval for the merger of Vistara with Air India together with Singapore International Airline’s 25.1% stake within the latter.
The approval was granted following commitments from all three airways that the merged entity will “maintain” capability, or passenger seats, at pre Covid-19 stage (calendar yr 2019) for flights between Singapore and Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Thiruvananthpuram.
This adopted competitors issues recognized by CCCS because the three entities maintain majority of the market shares amongst varied airways providing direct flights on the aforementioned 4 routes.
“CCCS also found that the price and capacity coordination between the parties arising from the confluence of the transactions would significantly restrict competition on the affected routes,” it mentioned in a press assertion on Tuesday.
Though the AI-Vistara merger was anticipated to conclude by March 2024, it’s now anticipated to conclude solely within the first half of 2025, in accordance with Vistara’s CEO Vinod Kannan. The Competition Commission of India had given its approval for the merger in September 2023.
