Tata-owned Air India has made it compulsory for passengers to pre-book their meals. With Vistara merging into the Air India as part of a strategy to streamline services, the Maharaja has made it compulsory for passengers to pre-book their meals. And in accordance with this, halal certificate will now be only for “Muslim meal” (MOML) which will also have to be pre-booked, reported The Times of India. Only some sectors like Saudi and Haj flights will have all halal meals.
Halal certificate for special meals: Air India
The company’s decision was communicated to all stakeholders through an internal circular earlier this month. The circular details that pre-booked meals labelled with MOML stickers will be treated as special meals, and a halal certificate will be provided for these meals. This change is part of AI’s broader move towards standardising meal services following its merger with Vistara.
“Pre-booked meal labelled with MOML sticker is to be treated as a special meal. Halal certificate will be provided only for uplifted MOML meal. All meals on Saudi sectors will be halal and halal certificate will be provided on Jeddah, Dammam, Riyadh, Medina sectors, including Haj flights,” the circular reads.
“We have always given meal options to passengers for convenience. Now meal service has been streamlined (due to bigger size and scale of AI) and meals need to be pre-booked.” Earlier the relatively smaller AI (pre merger with Vistara) was not very insistent on pre-booking meals,” a senior official was quoted as saying by the TOI.
Air India-Vistara merger
The merger between Air India and Vistara are both part of the Tata Group. Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, will see the latter retaining a 25.1% stake in the enlarged Air India. As part of the integration, Vistara’s existing routes, schedules, and in-flight experience will remain unchanged, ensuring continuity in service quality for passengers.
The first international flight of the newly merged Air India-Vistara entity, bearing flight code ‘AI2286,’ departed from Doha to Mumbai late Monday night.
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“Over the past two years the four Tata airlines have worked hard to prepare for and execute one of the most complex mergers in aviation history, consolidating from four airlines to two in the context of dramatic growth and wholesale transformation. As we now approach the end of that process, we are delighted to formalise a Group leadership comprising colleagues from all four antecedent airlines to drive the next phase of our journey,” said Campbell Wilson, CEO and MD, Air India.
The merger of Air India and Vistara was planned by the Tata Group to consolidate its civil aviation business and create a larger domestic entity. The merged airline is expected to have a greater share of the Indian aviation market, making it a serious competitor to low-cost carrier Indigo and other airlines.
