Is Air Vistara joining a global alliance?
Alright, let me start by saying - this is complete speculation on my part. But I'm wondering if Vistara will soon join a global airline alliance? Well, maybe not in the immediate future, but perhaps in the short term, like say 2 years?
Now you might wondering I'm dashing off on this tangent. It was a simple flight search that brought about this chain of thought. This morning I was looking for BA flights from London to Delhi. While BA does have direct options, one of the results that popped up was this:
BA's web page for partners and alliances does not show Air Vistara as a partner airline. Also, one wouldn't readily associate Vistara with a oneWorld alliance airline, given that Vistara is part-owned by Singapore Airlines, a Star Alliance member.
Before Air India joined Star Alliance, BA used to have AI results in connecting its passengers to various ports in India from London. There was rampant speculation about AI joining oneWorld, but we all know how that ended.
It's not to say that airlines do not use airlines from other alliance in their connection map, but they are the obvious preferred choice. An exception I found was this one, when I looked for New York to Calcutta flights on United website:
I searched on the website of other OneWorld partners to see if Vistara shows up on their search results too, but did not have any such luck.
Now you might wondering I'm dashing off on this tangent. It was a simple flight search that brought about this chain of thought. This morning I was looking for BA flights from London to Delhi. While BA does have direct options, one of the results that popped up was this:
Search result on BA website for LHR-DEL
BA's web page for partners and alliances does not show Air Vistara as a partner airline. Also, one wouldn't readily associate Vistara with a oneWorld alliance airline, given that Vistara is part-owned by Singapore Airlines, a Star Alliance member.
Before Air India joined Star Alliance, BA used to have AI results in connecting its passengers to various ports in India from London. There was rampant speculation about AI joining oneWorld, but we all know how that ended.
It's not to say that airlines do not use airlines from other alliance in their connection map, but they are the obvious preferred choice. An exception I found was this one, when I looked for New York to Calcutta flights on United website:
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So United, a Star Alliance member, still connects to other cities in India through Jet Airways, which is an Etihad Alliance member (though technically, United and Jet Airways are partners otherwise as well), while Air India is a Star Alliance member and connects throughout India just as well or sometimes even better than Jet Airways.
I searched on the website of other OneWorld partners to see if Vistara shows up on their search results too, but did not have any such luck.
A strong case can be made for Vistara joining Star Alliance, given Singapore Airlines is a key shareholder and they are part of Star Alliance, and so it would be natural for Vistara to join Star Alliance.
But for all we know SQ would want to make inroads in the OneWorld alliance and this would a be a good start for it. Another reason why this might be the case is that Indian Airlines need to government's nod for joining any alliance. This is one of the reasons Jet Airways and Kingfisher airlines couldn't join any alliance for so long, because the government kept blocking their entrance, until AI was part of an alliance. So the government might not want any India based airlines to be in Star Alliance. That would leave SkyTeam and OneWorld, and OW has a much stronger presence in India. How would Star Alliance react to that, remains to be seen. After all, SQ is just a 49% shareholder in Vistara.
But for all we know SQ would want to make inroads in the OneWorld alliance and this would a be a good start for it. Another reason why this might be the case is that Indian Airlines need to government's nod for joining any alliance. This is one of the reasons Jet Airways and Kingfisher airlines couldn't join any alliance for so long, because the government kept blocking their entrance, until AI was part of an alliance. So the government might not want any India based airlines to be in Star Alliance. That would leave SkyTeam and OneWorld, and OW has a much stronger presence in India. How would Star Alliance react to that, remains to be seen. After all, SQ is just a 49% shareholder in Vistara.
Readers: What do you think? You think we will see another airlines from India joining an international airline alliance anytime soon?
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