SIA and Vistara consider anti-trust immunity pact

SIA says it will consider applying for antitrust immunity with Vistara, as part of expanding the areas of cooperation between the two carriers. An official at the company's India office was recently quoted in Indian media as saying that they and its joint venture unit are "in (the) initial stages" of working out an antitrust immunity pact for the latter's impending international operations. Should it come to fruition, such an agreement would allow both SIA and Vistara access to each other's ticket booking systems, and enable them to build connections and align networks. "We already have co-operation with Vistara in many areas including codesharing and frequent flyer programme ties. We naturally are working on more potential areas of co-operation, and should it be necessary we will consider applying for antitrust immunity with the relevant authorities," says SIA. SIA had previously said that Vistara plans to launch international operations in the second half of 2018 - three months earlier than its previous forecast. Vistara is also scheduled to receive its 20th aircraft by the end of the current financial year, which ends on 30 March. The carrier will then receive two more aircraft in mid-2018, which will be mainly put on international services.<br/>