Air India Ready For “Take Off” After First Phase Of Transformation Concludes

Air India is moving to the second phase of its five-year transformation plan after addressing legacy issues in the first phase.

The first phase of the transformation plan is Vihaan.AI, called ‘Taxi', which saw the airline place a historical aircraft order and commence refurbishing its wide-body fleet and overhauling the information technology systems, the Tata Group-owned carrier said in a release on Thursday. Now, the airline will look to build on this momentum and develop platforms to grow faster in the second phase, named ‘Take Off', it said.

"During this Taxi phase, we have also come a long way in establishing foundations for growth. Our record-setting aircraft order, the commitment of $400 million to completely refurbish existing aircraft, the investment of $200 million in new I.T., and the recruitment of literally thousands of staff are but a few of the significant investments being made to restore Air India to the upper echelons of global aviation," Campbell Wilson, chief executive officer and managing director of the airline, said in a statement.

As Air India moves into the 'Take Off' phase, it will start seeing these investments bear fruit, he said.

In this phase, the airline will also witness the consolidation of the group airlines AirAsia India and Air India Express into a single low-cost carrier. This entity has already merged its core reservations platform, websites, and customer-facing systems.

The full-service carrier Vistara will also be merged with Air India in the ‘Take Off' phase of the plan, pending regulatory approval.

The airline also highlighted other measures, such as the onboarding of over 3,800 employees across crew and other functions, fleet expansion through leased aircraft, training programs to upskill staff, the addition of new routes, and improvements in operational metrics, such as load factor and on-time performance in the first phase of the plan.

Air India placed a massive order of 470 aircraft with Boeing and Airbus last month, indicating its growth ambitions in both domestic and international markets.

The Tata Group launched the five-year transformation plan Vihaan.AI, which signifies the dawn of a new era in Sanskrit, after taking over the airline from the government last year.