Air India willsee progress on various keyinitiatives, including refitting of wide-body and narrow-body planes, in 2025 as well astightening practices and processes to become profitable ultimately, the airline’s chief Campbell Wilson said on Friday.
After taking over the loss-making Air India from the government in January 2022, Tata Group has been working on an ambitious transformation plan to turn around the airline, which recently also placed orders for 100 more aircraft.
In his message to the staff on Friday, Wilson said 2024 saw the realisation of some of the most significant milestones, including the completion of the mergers of Air India Express and AirAsia India, and Vistara with Air India that “position us as the fourth largest business, by revenue, in the Tata group”.
Air India group operates 300 aircraft across both brands, flying over 60 million customers annually to more than 100 destinations in India and around the world.
While describing 2024 as a transformative year for Air India and Indian aviation in many ways, Wilson said 2025 will see progress on many more key initiatives of the airline such as refitting wide-body and remaining narrow-body aircraft with new seats and services.
Further, he added that Air India’s service standards will be elevated, raising the bar on what we consider ‘good’ and more consistently delivering to those new expectations.
Refitting of narrow-body aircraft has commenced while that of legacy wide-body planes is expected to start in 2025.
Wilson, the CEO and MD of Air India, also emphasised the airline will strengthen and tighten its practices and processes so that “we are not just consistent, we are also efficient and, ultimately, profitable”.
In the 2023-24 fiscal, Air India trimmed its losses to ₹4,444.10 crore from ₹11,387.96 crore in 2022-23.
Its turnover rose 23.69 per cent to ₹38,812 crore in the last financial year compared with the year-ago period.
Earlier this month, Air India placed an order for 100 more Airbus planes comprising 10 wide-body A350s and 90 narrow-body A320s. The total order books is 570.
Among other initiatives to streamline the group’s operations, Air India has optimised deploying its best narrow-body and wide-body products in high-density and high-demand routes.