When people think of Air India, the first thing that comes to mind is how poorly run the airline has been for decades. Although started by the highly respected Tata Group on October 15th, 1932, as Tata Air Services by JRD Tata, the Indian government took full control of the airline in 1952. Tata stayed on as Chairman initially because in his own words he was “anxious about the high standards of Air India would be adversely affected by nationalization.” And unfortunately, Tata was right. Between government corruption, poorly maintained planes and unsatisfactory customer service, Air India started to develop a bad reputation. Couple that with the emergence of low-cost carriers in the region such as IndiGo and SpiceJet, Air India was in danger of becoming irrelevant.
However in January of 2022, the prodigal son returned as the Tata Group made an agreement with the Indian Government to re-acquire the beleaguered airline. After that, the airline appointed former Scoot CEO Campbell Scott to run the airline. So, with all of that out of the way, this will be the first in a series in which I analyze an airline for its fleet, service and future operations.
Air India Fleet
Currently, the airline has 114 aircraft on its roster. The average age of their fleet is 10 years and considering their last major order for new aircraft came in 2006, a fleet renewal is way overdue. While their 787-8 Dreamliners were purchased from Boeing, their 777-200LRs and 777-300ERs were acquired from Delta and Etihad respectively. Other narrowbodies such as the A320neo were leased from China Aircraft Leasing.
Historically, Air India owned Constellations, Boeing 707s and were one of the first customers of the Boeing 747 (including Emperor Ashoka, which was the first 747 delivered to Air India that was destroyed in a wreck in 1979). But what does the future look like for the fleet? On February 13 2023, Air India placed the largest order in the airline's history by ordering up to 470 Aircraft from Airbus and Boeing. The order tally is as follows per Indian Express:
In addition to new aircraft, the airline finalized an interior retrofit for all of their widebodies as part of its fleet transformation program Vihaan.AI per CEO Campbell Wilson in his interview with Sam Chui. Having the Tata Group invest in the airline will go a long way into rebuilding the airline’s image in the future. So as Air India moves towards renewing their fleet, the question is what changes are present right away?
Service
Despite these future plans, the big question travelers have is what changes will be present with the airline right now? First off, the branding has changed. The airline introduced a new paint scheme along with a revamp of their Maharaja mascot. But it isn’t just the branding that changed.
In his interview with Sam Chui, Wilson stated that they attained best in class punctuality in the Indian domestic market for the first time in 8 years. In addition, the menus were revamped to keep up with competition. Examples of what would be served would be traditional Indian dishes such as Vegetable Pulao, Medu Vada and Chicken 65. But not only Indian dishes will be offered. One can have Asian or Indian-Western fusion such as Achari Paneer and Emmenthal cheese sandwich.
In addition, the carrier has been hiring 600 pilots and cabin crew per month to handle the new traffic. But while the soft product has improved recently, the hard product still needs improvement. I did some research and watched various trip reports on Youtube and there’s a consensus as while food and service have improved, the hard product has left a lot to be desired between the faulty IFE systems and the out-of-date seats. But with the initial improvements, it looks like Air India is moving in the right direction.
Future operations
So what does the future hold for Air India? Well first off are the aforementioned retrofits for older widebody aircraft for Vihaan.AI. As other airlines kept up with the times when it comes to their premium offerings, Air India needs to change to be competitive to compete with Emirates, Qatar, and Singapore (despite owning 25% of the airline). In addition, the Tata Group acquired AirAsia and Vistara to merge into Air India Express and Air India respectively. Because of this, it will allow the airline to aggressively expand around the world in addition to catering to the already competitive Indian market.
Recently, Air India announced an interline agreement with Alaska Airlines offering passengers more options for flights to India. This will be highly beneficial to both airlines because the west coast has a very significant Indian American population so someone from Seattle can fly on Alaska to San Francisco and then fly Air India to Delhi or Mumbai. And speaking of Seattle, the airline has plans to fly to the Emerald City from Delhi or Mumbai. But Seattle isn’t the only city as Dallas, Los Angeles, Rome, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Zurich are also on the list. This airline has ambitious plans for the future with all of these developments so the world is watching the Maharaja.
Conclusion
In summary, Air India has a long way to go before it can become what they were in their prime. And I hope they succeed because the Maharaja was able to bring in a lot of immigrants from India into the United States. I know this because my parents are first generation immigrants and came into the US on Air India (my dad flew on Emperor Ashoka, the first 747 owned by Air India) and if Air India didn’t exist, I don’t think my dad would have met my mom in the states. So I really want this airline to go back to what it once was. But what do you guys think? Will Air India get back on track? Let me know in the comments below and keep looking to the sky!
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