Air India-Vistara merger gets Singapore’s conditional approval

SINGAPORE’S competition watchdog said on Tuesday (Mar 5) that it has approved the merger between Tata Group-owned Air India and sister airline Vistara, a joint venture between Tata and Singapore Airlines (SIA), subject to certain conditions.

Singapore’s flagship carrier announced its plan to merge Vistara and Air India in November 2022, in a bid to create a dominant full-service airline in the domestic and international markets.

While India’s antitrust body approved the deal in September last year, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) had identified certain competition concerns regarding the merger.

The watchdog said that the parties possessed the majority of the market share among airlines operating direct flights on four routes of concern – between Singapore and Indian cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Tiruchirapalli.

To address the concerns raised by the watchdog, the parties have proposed to maintain capacity on the said flights at pre-Covid levels, appoint independent auditors to monitor compliance with capacity commitments and submit annual as well as interim reports.

“CCCS considers the proposed commitments sufficient to address the competition concerns arising from the transactions,” the watchdog said on Tuesday.

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SIA and Air India did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

According to the terms of the deal, autos-to-steel conglomerate Tata would hold 74.9 per cent of the combined entity, while SIA will own the remaining 25.1 per cent.