Air India CEO on reviving the company

New Delhi:

Facing criticism over fluctuating service standards, staff disputes and aircraft with severely outdated interiors, Air India managing director and CEO Campbell Wilson told NDTV that the airline’s revival will take several years. “The Economist called this the Everest of all corporate turnarounds,” Mr. Wilson said. “We made no secret that this would be a multi-year program.”

Now in the second year of a five-year transformation program, Air India management faced an uphill battle to integrate thousands of employees across the airlines that are now part of the group – Vistara, Air India Express and Air Asia India. Each airline, including the original Air India, had its own work culture – balancing employee work expectations was particularly challenging.

The Vistara pilots effectively went on strike of sorts by calling in sick en masse, which began primarily towards the end of March 2024, with the significant disruptions lasting until early April 2024. This was in protest against new contracts introduced due to Vistara’s impending merger with Air India, which reduced their guaranteed flying hours from 70 to 40 hours, resulting in a pay cut for many pilots, particularly young first officers.

In May this year, Air India Express cabin crew went on strike when a significant number of cabin crew called in sick in protest against alleged mismanagement and issues related to its merger with AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India). After the airline management initially fired several flight attendants, it reinstated them following the Indian Labor Commissioner’s intervention.

“It’s certainly not the finished product. I know there is great expectation and even impatience for the future Air India to come into its own,” says Cambell Wilson. “I’m just as impatient for this to happen,” he says, noting that despite the hiccups, there have still been massive changes in the airline’s direction. “We reduced the average age (of employees) from 54 to 35, hired 9,000 new employees, integrated 4 airlines into 2, 140 IT systems, 100 new aircraft, new training academies (and) opened a base maintenance facility.”

Asked whether a fine should be imposed for poor safety practices, Mr Wilson acknowledged that there were occasional systemic gaps, which could be partly explained by outdated practices at the former state-owned airline. “Sometimes it’s an ancient practice.” Sometimes it’s a matter of human oversight. “Sometimes it’s a systemic gap or something that hasn’t been addressed or mitigated in other ways,” Mr Campbell said. “We undergo an audit every 6 months.” “We open ourselves up to external audits, be it by IATA (International Air Travel Association) or other parties.”

Between January and August this year, Air India was fined at least Rs 2.8 million by India’s aviation regulator, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DCGA), over a variety of safety concerns related to critical operations Long distance routes. Violating the flight duty time restrictions of its operational crews and operating an international flight with “unqualified” crew members.

Air India’s decision to proceed with its proposed merger with Vistara, widely regarded as India’s best full-service airline, has also raised concerns among passengers and fans of Vistara who have always appreciated the former airline’s renowned service standards. Earlier this year, Vistara was named Best Airline in India and South Asia for the fourth consecutive year at Skytrax’s World Airline Awards 2024. Vistara aircraft now integrated into Air India are also configured to a higher standard than the vast majority of Air India’s existing A-320s and A-321s.

“Vistara now offers Air India the opportunity to catalyze and accelerate its transformation into a new airline that represents the best of Vistara and Air India’s legacy,” said Mr. Wilson. To match the quality of the Vistara product, Air India has announced that it will continue to operate ex-Vistara Airbus A320neo aircraft on key metro routes between Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru, Delhi-Hyderabad, Delhi-Hyderabad and Mumbai -Bengaluru and Mumbai-Hyderabad from December 1st.

Last month, hundreds of false alerts were sent to airlines in India, causing flight diversions and chaos on the ground and in the air, not just over Indian airspace but around the world. Several Air India flights were also affected, a tense time for the airline’s management as it had to deal with the unpredictable situation. An Air India Boeing 777 was forced to land in the subarctic Canadian city of Iqaluit on October 15, 2024, after receiving a bomb threat. The passengers were ultimately flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force to their final destination, Chicago, as there was minimal support in Iqaluit to care for so many passengers.

“Just the sheer number and the length of time that these threats persisted were, in my opinion, unprecedented anywhere in the world,” Mr Campbell said. “But the nature of aviation is that there will be an event that wakes you up.” In the middle of the night, whether it’s a global conflict somewhere, whether it’s a hoax, whether it’s a Blizzard in New York that caused some planes to be diverted to Pittsburgh or elsewhere.”

Airlines in India still don’t know who caused the hoaxes. “To be honest, we don’t know what caused it because we are a private organization. We have no way of knowing exactly who and why they did what they did. But I think what.” This led to the introduction of new protocols and procedures at the regulatory and industry level to enable a more consistent and timely assessment with more expertise to quickly assess the nature and severity of the threat and therefore what actions are recommended or should be taken.

Air India’s biggest concern may be the long-overdue fleet renewal of its existing long-haul aircraft, including the old Boeing 777 and 787 Dreamliner, which it acquired from the government when the airline was under its spell. These are intended to complement the record order for 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing, a $70 billion deal that the company completed in February 2023. This remains one of the largest single deals in commercial aviation history. The renovation of the existing fleet will cost the group $400 million. This includes the overhaul of the cabin interiors of the wide-body fleet, consisting of 27 Boeing B787-8 and 13 Boeing B777 aircraft. The Airbus A320neo and A321neo single-aisle aircraft will also be upgraded, a process that has already begun.

“It’s fair to say that particularly the old aircraft that we inherited were not up to that standard, and it just takes a long time.” We have committed $400 million to purchase the seats to modernize those aircraft. Since then, the seats have been in the certification and manufacturing process. Installation on wide-body aircraft will begin next year. The problem Air India is facing due to the speed of modernization of its older aircraft is an industry-wide problem.

“Two different seat suppliers, reflecting exactly the nature of the post-COVID supply chain, came to us and said we can no longer meet the delivery dates we promised.” “In one case there will be a delay of six months, in In one case, even a little longer.” This means that Air India’s old Boeing 787 and 777, which are scheduled for an overhaul, will only receive a new and significantly improved interior from mid-2025. “Unfortunately, that’s how it is It is. We have no influence on that. Many other airlines are affected by similar restrictions.”

The first set of new-generation Boeing 787 Dreamliner seats will arrive in April, will be installed and then certified for use, “although not until October next year.” The pace of modernization will then increase, with several Boeing 787 Dreamliner seats arriving each month. Aircraft enter the modernization process. The conversion of Air India’s large-capacity Boeing 777, which has operated long-haul flights mainly to the United States and the United Kingdom, will take longer. While there will be a preliminary renewal of the product in existing aircraft in 2025, the full cabin renewal will not take place until 2026. “As I said: the renovation will be in full swing by the end of 2026.”

Meanwhile, Air India has introduced six brand new Airbus A-350-900 aircraft on its flagship New York and London routes, with flights to Newark commencing in a few weeks. While this is a welcome addition to the legacy airline’s hard products, the truly new Air India is still years away from realization.

Campbell Wilson is aware of this. “We transport 60 million people a year across the group.” We operate more than 1,200 flights every day. So it is a mass transport business and unfortunately there are cases where it is not perfect,” says Mr Wilson. “It’s just that we need to be more consistent and continue this process because I’m as impatient as anyone to get this to a level that, you know, meets customer expectations at all times.”