New Delhi, Jul 8 (IANS): Air India said on Monday that it has completed harmonising operating procedures across key functions for the four Tata Group airlines as a crucial step towards the merger.

Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Group (51 per cent) and Singapore Airlines (49 per cent), is being merged into Air India to create a single full-service carrier.

At the same time Air India's subsidiaries, AIX Connect (formerly Air Asia) and Air India Express, are merging to form a single low-budget airline.

“Over the past 18 months, a team of over 100 members has collaborated to align best practices and adopt common operating procedures. This effort will culminate in the creation of two distinct manuals: one for the full-service carrier Air India and another for the low-cost carrier Air India Express,” said Campbell Wilson, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Air India.

Previously, each of the four airlines had its own separate operating manual.

“This is an important milestone in the merger of the Tata Group airlines and we are grateful for the support received from the Ministry of Civil Aviation in terms of timely clearances for the merger process," the Air India MD added.

"The live tracker created by the flight standards directorate of DGCA with a dedicated team for continuous monitoring of the progress of the harmonisation process has been instrumental in achieving the challenging task in a time-bound manner,” Campbell further stated.

Air India and its group companies are now initiating the necessary crew training to act on the harmonised processes, which will be another step in the direction of building the new Air India and Air India Express, he added.