AirAsia India has sought approvals from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to expedite its integration with Air India Express, including a rebranding from AirAsia India to AI Express, three people familiar with the matter said.
The merger, scheduled for completion by March 2024, is likely to be finalized at least a quarter ahead of the original timeline, said one of the three people seeking anonymity.
“The air operator permit for the two brands, AirAsia India and Air India Express, is likely to be integrated soon, as that process is almost complete,” a second person, an airline official, said seeking anonymity.
Staff integration is underway, and new roles are being assigned. The airline is expediting the transition in operational arena, particularly concerning the integration of the flight network.
“It has also sought in-principle approval from the civil aviation regulator for fast-tracking the merger of the brands, and a change in brand name from AirAsia India to Air India Express. The process of integration has been faster than expected,” he added.
The process of changing the livery of AirAsia India’s 27 aircraft to match that of Air India Express is also underway. It is planning to send 3-4 aircraft every month for the change in branding elements, according to a third official. “The airline is expected to send 3-4 aircraft for livery change every month. The entire fleet with new livery will be ready by November-December,” the official added.
AirAsia India has also initiated the regulatory process to alter its International Air Transport Association (IATA) flight code from ‘I5’ to ‘IX.’ “The process for withdrawing the I5 flight code for AirAsia India, and replacing it with IX has started. As it is an administrative process, surrendering of the flight code and shift to IX will take a few months and may extend to January,” the official said.
While IX is the airline code for Air India Express, I5 is Air Asia India’s code.
In November 2022, the Tata Group announced the merger of AirAsia India and Air India Express. As part of this merger, AirAsia Bhd divested its 16.67% stake in the budget airline, allowing the Tatas to snap it for ₹155.65 crore. According to the agreement, the Indian airline has the right to continue using the AirAsia brand name for one year following the transaction.“We expect the branding transition to complete in 1-2 months. The regulator has been informed of the same,” a third official said.
The Tata Group had initiated a route network restructuring early this year to avoiding competition between the two group companies.
Under the route restructuring exercise, AirAsia India has vacated routes such as Delhi-Visakhapatnam and Delhi-Mumbai for Air India and replaced the parent brand on flights for three stations including Bhubaneswar, Bagdogra and Surat.
In March, the Tata Group also integrated the reservation system and customer interface of AirAsia India and Air India Express, taking the airlines one step closer to form a single low-cost platform.
On 27 March, the two airlines migrated to a single, unified reservation system and website, adopting common social media and customer support channels. This helped the passengers to make and manage bookings, and check into AirAsia India and Air India Express for both domestic and international flights, on an all-new integrated website: airindiaexpress.com.
AirAsia India flies to 19 destinations across the country while Air India Express operates to 14 international destinations from 19 Indian cities.
With the integrated Air India Express, the Tata Group will also be able to position a uniform low-cost brand against India’s largest airline and low-cost carrier IndiGo and hence, an early transition is expected to reap operational efficiencies, save costs and boost revenue performance for the airline in the upcoming peak demand quarter of Oct-Dec, the third official added.
Under the strategy for the group airlines, the Tata group aims to operate full-service carrier Air India on metro-to-metro markets and high connectivity routes and consolidated Air India Express will focus on leisure oriented or price-sensitive markets. The integrated low-cost carrier is expected to further help in improving connectivity between key domestic cities and Air India’s international network. The Group is also merging Vistara with Air India.
