Ground staff and crew members at Odisha's Biju Patnaik International Airport bid an emotional goodbye to the last Vistara flight on Monday.

The Delhi-bound flight was the full service carrier's last before its merger with Air India. The first flight of the integrated Air India-Vistara entity took off for Mumbai from Doha on Monday night. The flight operating with the code 'AI2286' departed Doha at around 10.07 pm local time and is expected to land in Mumbai early on Tuesday morning. It is also the first international flight of the merged entity.

In an Instagram post on Sunday, the airline had said, "As the plane ascends, so do our dreams; let's glide toward the future, where the sky isn't the limit, but just the beginning."

After the Vistara-Air India merger, Vistara's 49 per cent owner Singapore Airlines will have a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India.

Air India has deployed additional resources, including help desk kiosks, at touch points and airports to ensure a smooth experience for Vistara passengers. In due course, Vistara airport ticketing offices and check-in terminals will become that of Air India.

Vistara aircraft will be identified by a special four-digit Air India code beginning with the digit '2'.