K Srinivasan
TO say that Vistara was the most luminous of all the Tata aviation brands would be an understatement. Actually, it was its best brand! So, the question everyone is asking is why on earth would the Tatas want to subsume a brand that represented all that they stand for – excellence, class, elegance, and that indefinable chutzpah that only comes when you are a cut above the rest?
It also says much about Air India and how it is perceived that there is a sense of deep lament at the end of Vistara. Prathap Suthan, Managing Partner and Chief Creative Officer of BangInTheMiddle, wrote on Linkedin: “Today, on the 11th of November, Vistara will take its final flight. And just like that, it will fade into history. A reminder of a time when loyalty was more than miles and when comfort was more than seat width. The UK will be gone. Another trusted code will be laid to rest. So long, Vistara. Thank you for your brief but beautiful flutter.”
A powerful brand
The anguish for the end of Vistara is in many ways a reminder to Air India that they need to get their act together. To be fair, three years is too short a period to ask an airline to turn around what was run to the ground over decades of mismanagement and inefficiency (with brief periods of luminosity in between).
As a brand, though, there can be no two opinions that AI is a powerful brand with huge recall globally. It is also a recall that is filled with nostalgia for the halcyon days of AI under JRD Tata, the airline that first introduced the jet engines into Asia with the 707, the stately elegance of its cabin crew, the technical virtuosity of its engineering staff and the high-quality cockpit crew. Add to it catering from the Taj and you had a package, the stuff of which dreams were made. If you flew, Air India, it was perceived that you had made it in life.
Expansion pressure
The Government takeover of the airline and the systematic exclusion of the Tatas from the day-to-day operations finally resulted in Air India becoming the shambolic albatross that was a weight around the Government’s neck. It was finally sold to the Tata three and a half years back. It was a brave move on the part of Tata Sons MD Natarajan Chandrasekaran to buy back the airline from the Government. For one, it was based on emotion to get a brand back home.
Secondly, there was a burning ambition to prove to the world that the Tatas could deliver a world-class airline from India. The problem for Air India is that it must expand to keep pace with the leader –Indigo. So there will always be pressure on whether they fix the legacy issues or expand the network. For the public at large that is unaware of such fundamental issues, a clean functional plane is critical and, therefore, the pressure to fix the fleet.
Unfortunately, that has now been further delayed. So, there you have it; Air India coping with an enlarged network, aircraft that need plenty of fixing and a team that is still finding its feet thanks to many mergers and cross-pollination. As the Mint rightly explains: “There will always be a sizable demand to fix the planes first before starting new routes. It is a valid demand; however, one has to understand that the airline cannot come to a ground stop, repair everything and start again. …..Air India has embarked on a transformative five-year plan and a lot is going on. The airline is making billions worth of investments in new aircraft, upgrading IT systems, revamping internal processes, and enhancing the consumer experience to shed its legacy image.’’
The good news is that the airline has got its brand-new wide-body A350s. At last count, six of them are flying non-stop to London and across the Atlantic to New York. Those who have travelled on that flight have been raving about the service and the interiors, and exclaiming, “This is the Air India we want”. That will happen, but it is still some distance away. Sadly, in all this, the one legacy that flyers wanted the Tatas to retain – Vistara – has been put to rest. One only hopes that the new Ai India will remind flyers of Vistara – if not immediately, at least soon.
