Plenty of changes seem to be happening at two of the Tata Group’s airlines – Vistara and Air India. As Air India’s new management proposes substantial changes within the airline, its echoes seem to have reached Vistara, with the carrier’s employees wondering whether changes at AI could affect them as well. But the airline’s top management recently assured its workforce that this was not the case.
Assurances
Vistara’s top management addressed concerns of its employees regarding the future of the airline and the impact on their employment as talks about a merger with Air India gathers steam. Sources have revealed to the Indian Express that the Chairman of Vistara’s parent company Tata SIA Airlines Ltd, Bhaskar Bhat, told its employees last week at a town hall meeting that talks are ongoing between the Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines about the future of Vistara.
One of the main concerns of Vistara employees came from Air India’s recent decision to offer voluntary retirement to some of its workers to reduce the overall headcount of the airline. Belonging to a sister airline within the same group, Vistara employees were apparently unsettled about the possibility of something similar happening in their airline as well.
Vistara is jointly owned by the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines in a 51-49% stake ratio. Photo: Airbus
But Bhat has reassured Vistara employees that the AI VRS scheme will not affect them as it was aimed at some of the older employees at Air India. He pointed out that with the average age of Vistara employees being around 27-28 years, the scheme does not apply to them.
A lot is happening
Given the developments at Air India and Vistara lately, it might not have been just AI’s recent VRS scheme that disconcerted the employees. Until quite recently, Vistara was the only full-service carrier within the Tata Group. But ever since Air India’s acquisition, conversations clubbing…