[AMcWhirter]

Many of you will I hope have seen our piece on how Air India expects to be transformed over the coming years.

The news (so far not reported by UK media) that SIA (Singapore Airlines) will be holding a 25 per cent stake in Air India is significant.

Part of the investment comes from Vistara being merged into Air India plus further investment from SIA.

As we all know SIA is renowned for its high standards. One would expect SIA’s influence to make Air India regain its glorious Maharajah past last seen in decades gone by.

https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/singapore-airlines-gets-25-1-stake-in-air-india-group-after-injecting-267-mn-11677554766408.html

Our piece from last Tuesday.

What will Air India’s huge fleet order mean for travellers?

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Bullfrog

[AMcWhirter]

Apologies to Hannah of our editorial team

This news first emerged in November 2022 and weeks before the AI aircraft order.

Naturally I made an online search but when entering “SIA to acquire 25 per cent of Air India” our article never appeared in Google.

Tata Group to merge Air India and Vistara

[BackOfThePlane]

“As we all know SIA is renowned for its high standards. One would expect SIA’s influence to make Air India regain its glorious Maharajah past last seen in decades gone by”

Some might suggest that SIA’s involvement / equity holding with Vistara didn’t quite yield the quality operation expected. I give them 3 years.

[cwoodward]

Is the aquision by SIA in place ?

I ask because I had heard (source not 100%) that it was shelved.

[AMcWhirter]

This 30 mins YouTube by NDTV features an interview with new CEO Campbell Wilson (he held a similar role at SIA’s Scoot) which refers to Air India’s plans for future long-haul.

In particular Wilson refers to the US West Coast and Australasia. Its new fleet on order will have the range for non-stop service.

[FDOS]

“As we all know SIA is renowned for its high standards. One would expect SIA’s influence to make Air India regain its glorious Maharajah past last seen in decades gone by.”

1 billion Indians v 6 million singaporeans.

Culture is the way we do things around here (Ed Schein).

Looks like one outcome, to me.

[AMcWhirter]

Indeed as noted above by “BackOfThePlane” SIA’s investment in other carriers hasn’t always been a success.

Some readers may recall SIA’s investment in Ansett and its 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic which the Singapoean airline later sold to Delta.

Let’s hope Air India proves to be a success.

My concern is whether or not Indian airports will be able to cope with flows of new traffic and that they gets the transit situation sorted.

1 user thanked author for this post.

cwoodward

[AMcWhirter]

In the piece we published recently (it’s posted at the beginning of this thread) it was noted that six A350-900s were part of a cancelled Aeroflot order.

Today vlogger Paul Lucas is taking a similar (cancelled order) Aeroflot A350-900 (with similar seating configuration) with Turkish Airlines on the Istanbul-Amsterdam run.

He is impressed with the business class seating layout.

It’s certainly superior to what AI has offered until now.

[Author]

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