Vistara CEO on Fighting India's Low-Cost Carriers and Nagging Merger Questions

Clearly Vinod Kannan, the CEO of Vistara, may have had to field this question on the possible Vistara-Air India merger one too many times.

And while his immediate response was a — “I really don't know what is happening,” he quickly went on to add, “Not that I want to evade the question, but there are certain discussions that are happening which I’m not privy to.”

Kanan said this is a question more for the shareholders. Tata owns 51 percent of the airline while Singapore Airlines owns the remaining 49 percent.

A Singapore Airlines veteran, Kannan joined Vistara as the chief strategy officer in 2019 and was made the chief commercial officer in 2020. In January, he was elevated to the ranks of the CEO.

Commenting on the merger, Kannan added that he and his team are focused on Vistara’s progress, “I tell my team that no matter what, the 54 aircraft that we have will have to be serviced, sold and operated. Until we are told otherwise, we will maintain that we will be operating independently.”

In conversation with Skift, Kannan talks about the future of Vistara — the only other full-service carrier in India, after Air India and how it is to operate a full-service airline in a market dominated by the low-cost model.

The comm