Mumbai:

A pilots’ grouping on Tuesday alleged that Air India and IndiGo have a tacit understanding not to hire pilots from each other, saying that employment in the aviation sector should remain fair.

Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA India), a member associate of the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Association (IFALPA), has flagged the issue to the civil aviation ministry.

Air India and IndiGo did not comment on PTI’s queries about the pilots’ grouping’s allegations.

An IndiGo official said there was no substance in the allegations.

In a letter to Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu, ALPA India has expressed concerns regarding recent reports that Air India and IndiGo have agreed not to hire each other’s pilots.

“Such an arrangement, if true, raises serious legal and ethical questions as it restricts the fundamental right to employment and fair competition,” the letter said.

ALPA India has urged the minister to ensure that employment in the aviation sector remains fair, open and in line with constitutional and legal principles.

India is one of the world’s fastest-growing markets and more than 1,800 planes are on order. There is also a rising demand for pilots as carriers expand their fleet to cater to the air traffic growth.

ALPA India represents over 800 pilots across airlines and helicopter companies.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Journalist Vir Sanghvi on Saturday criticised Tata Group-owned Air India after the airline downgraded his cabin class on an upcoming flight, saying he has “lost count of the number of times” the airline has reassigned seats of passengers.

The airline expressed regret over the inconvenience caused and assured it would provide compensation for the downgrade. 

In a post on X, Mr Sanghvi said he had booked a seat in the Premium Economy Class on AI 353 that is scheduled to fly from Mumbai to Bangkok on January 20. The airline later downgraded his cabin class to Economy. 

“I have lost count of the number of times Air India has done this to so many passengers? Why would premium passengers book on Air India,” he wrote on the micro-blogging site. 

I have lost count of the number of times @airindia has done this to so many passengers?
Why would premium passengers book on ⁦@airindia⁩ ?
Isn’t it time for Campbell Wilson to actually manage the airline?
Never happened this regularly till ⁦@TataCompanies⁩ took over pic.twitter.com/sGnXXHhUhu

— vir sanghvi (@virsanghvi) January 18, 2025

“Isn’t it time for Campbell Wilson to actually manage the airline?” he added, referring to the Chief Executive Office and Managing Director of the airline. 

Mr Sanghvi also alleged such seat reallocations by Air India never took place this frequently till the Tata Group took over the airline from the government in 2022. 

He also shared a screenshot of a message sent by Air India on the seat reallocation. In the message, the airline expressed regret over the inconvenience and also provided a link for the passenger to make an alternative arrangement.

The airline also apologised to Mr Sanghvi while responding to his post on X and initially sought some time to look into the matter. 

It later said: “As requested, we have provided you with the details of the charges for upgrading to business class. Please rest assured that you are eligible for a full refund in case of cancellation or compensation in the event of downgrading to economy class,” it said. 

Dear Mr. Sanghvi, thank you for your time on the call. As requested, we have provided you with the details of the charges for upgrading to business class. Please rest assured that you are eligible for a full refund in case of cancellation or compensation in the event of…

— Air India (@airindia) January 18, 2025

“Inconvenience caused to you is deeply regretted and appreciate your kind understanding,” it added. 

Recently, a Facebook user alleged that he and his four-year-old son were downgraded from business class to economy class on an Air India flight, with the airline reassigning their seats to a crew member.

Air India will see progress on various key initiatives, including refitting of wide body and narrow body planes, in 2025 as well as tighten practices and processes to ultimately become profitable, the airline’s chief Campbell Wilson said on Friday (December 27, 2024).

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 (December 27, 2024), Mr. 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, Mr. 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, Air India’s service standards will be elevated, raising the bar on what we consider ‘good’, and more consistently delivering to those new expectations, he added.

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% to ₹38,812 crore in the last financial year compared to 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 the deployment of its best narrow body and wide body products in high-density and high-demand routes.

New Delhi:

Under fire for faltering service standards, staff disputes and severely dated aircraft interiors, Campbell Wilson, the MD and CEO of Air India told NDTV that the revival of the airline will take a few more years to complete. “The Economist called this the Everest of corporate turnarounds,” said Mr Wilson. “We made no secret of the fact that it was going to be a multi-year programme.”

Now in year two of a five-year transformation programme, the management of Air India is facing an uphill battle to integrate thousands of workers across airlines that are now part of the group – Vistara, Air India Express and Air Asia India. Each airline, including the original Air India, has had its own work culture, however, bringing the job expectations of personnel into line has been particularly challenging.

Vistara pilots effectively went on a form of strike by calling in sick en masse, starting notably towards the end of March 2024, with significant disruptions continuing into early April 2024. This was a 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 junior first officers.

In May this year, Air India Express cabin crew went on strike when a significant number of cabin crew members began reporting sick to protest against alleged mismanagement and issues related to their merger with AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India). After initially dismissing several cabin crew members, the airline management reinstated them after mediation by India’s Chief Labour Commissioner.

“It is certainly not the finished product. I know that there’s a huge amount of expectation and indeed impatience for the future Air India to fully emerge,” says Mr Wilson. “I am equally impatient for that to happen,” he says, pointing out that despite the hiccups, there have still been massive changes in the direction of the airline.

”We’ve brought the average age [of staff members] from 54 to 35, hired 9,000 new staff, brought four airlines, 140 IT systems, 100 new aircraft, new training academies [and] started a base maintenance facility,” he said.

Asked about being fined for deficient safety practices, Mr Wilson acknowledged occasional systemic gaps, some of which could be explained through legacy practices within the former government carrier. “Sometimes it’s legacy practice. Sometimes it is a matter of human oversight. Sometimes it’s a matter of a systemic gap or something that hasn’t been addressed or mitigated through another means,” said Mr Wilson. “We open ourselves for audit every 6 months. We open ourselves for external audit, whether by IATA [International Air Travel Association] or other parties.”

Between January and August this year, Air India was fined at least Rs 2.8 crore by India’s aviation regulator, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DCGA) for a host of safety-related concerns linked to operations over long-range critical routes, violating the flight duty time limitations of its operating crews and for operating an international flight with ‘non-qualified’ crew members.

Air India’s decision to proceed with its planned merger with Vistara, widely considered India’s finest full-service airline, has also raised concerns among passengers and fans of Vistara who have consistently appreciated the former airline’s renowned service standards. Earlier this year, Vistara was adjudged the best airline in India and South Asia for the fourth consecutive year at the 2024 World Airline Awards by Skytrax. Vistara, now integrated with Air India, is also configured to a higher standard than a large majority of Air India’s existing A-320s and A-321.

”Vistara now allows Air India the opportunity to be catalyzed and the transformation accelerated at a new airline which represents the best of both Vistara and the legacy of Air India to be born,” says Mr Wilson. In order to be consistent with the quality offered by the Vistara product, Air India has announced that it will continue flying erstwhile Vistara Airbus A320neo aircraft on key metro routes between Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru, Delhi-Hyderabad, Delhi-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Bengaluru and Mumbai-Hyderabad from December 1.

Air India’s biggest concern, arguably, is the long overdue fleet restoration of its existing long-haul jetliners including legacy Boeing 777s and 787 Dreamliners which it acquired from the government when the airline came into its fold. These are meant to complement its record 470 aircraft order from Airbus and Boeing, a $70 billion deal that it closed out on February 2023. This remains one of the largest single deals in the history of commercial aviation. The refurbishment of the existing fleet will cost the group $400 million. This includes the overhaul of cabin interiors for its wide-body fleet, comprising 27 Boeing B787-8 and 13 Boeing B777 aircraft. Single-aisle aircraft – the Airbus A320neo and A321neo are also being upgraded, a process that has already begun.

“It’s fair to say that, particularly, the legacy aircraft that we inherited, were not up to that standard, and it just takes a long time. We have committed $400 million to buy the seats to refurbish those aircraft. The seats have been in the certification and manufacturing process since then. They will start to be installed on the wide-body aircraft next year. The problem Air India faces with the pace of refurbishment of its older aircraft is an industry-wide issue,” Mr Wilson said.

“Two different seat suppliers, reflecting just the nature of the post-COVID supply chain, came to us and said, the dates we committed to deliver, we can no longer meet. There’s going to be a delay of, in one case, six months, in one case, a little bit longer,” he added.

This means that legacy Air India Boeing 787s and 777s which are scheduled for refurbishment will see a new and vastly improved interior product only from mid-2025 onwards. “Unfortunately, it is what it is. We don’t have any control over that. Many other airlines are affected by similar constraints,” Mr Wilson said.

The first set of new-generation Boeing 787 Dreamliner seats arrive in April and will be installed and then certified for use, though not before October next year. The pace of the upgrade will then pick up with a couple of Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft entering the refurbishment process every month. Air India’s large-capacity Boeing 777, which has operated long-haul routes primarily to the United States and the United Kingdom will take longer to upgrade. While there will be an interim refresh to the product on existing aircraft during 2025, the full cabin refresh will only happen in 2026.

“As I say at the end of 2026, the refurbishment is to be well underway,” said Mr Wilson.

In the meanwhile, Air India has introduced six brand new Airbus A-350-900 aircraft onto its flagship routes – New York and London with services commencing to Newark within weeks. While this is a welcome addition to the hard product offered by the legacy carrier, the truly new Air India is still years away from being realised. Mr Wilson realises this.

”We carry 60 million people a year across the group. We operate more than 1200 flights every day. And so, it is a mass transportation business, and unfortunately, you know, there are occasions where it’s not perfect,” says Mr.Wilson. “It’s just that we have to be more consistent and continue that process because I’m as impatient as anyone of improving this to the level that, you know, meets customer expectations all the time.”

New Delhi:

The diversion of a Paris-New Delhi Air India flight to Jaipur and the pilots’ refusal to fly further after completing their duty hours sparked chaos on Monday as several passengers were left stranded for many hours and ultimately sent to the national capital by road.

There was no official statement from Air India but sources said the airline did not arrange an alternative flight as doing so would have taken longer than sending the passengers to Delhi on a bus.

AI-2022, which took off from Paris at 10pm on Sunday, was scheduled to reach Delhi at 10.35am on Monday. The flight, however, was diverted to Jaipur on Monday morning because of smog in the national capital since the pilots were not qualified to make low-visibility landings, the sources said.

At the Jaipur airport, as the flight waited for clearance to resume its journey to Delhi, the pilots refused to continue flying, citing completion of duty hours. The Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules framed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation mandate that the flight crew get enough rest and prevent fatigue-related safety issues.

The stranded passengers, whose journey to Delhi was already delayed by several hours, demanded an alternate flight and slammed the “pathetic management” by the airline.

“Shameful and pathetic management from @airindia today as flight #AI2022 from CDG-DEL diverted to JAI. Pax stranded at JAI asked to spend 5 hrs inside the aircraft and then to take a bus from JAI to DEL. My wife and two months old is suffering and I am helpless,” Vishal P, an X user, posted on the micro-blogging platform.

Shameful and pathetic management from @airindia today as flight #AI2022 from CDG-DEL diverted to JAI. Pax stranded at JAI asked to spend 5 hrs inside the aircraft and then to take a bus from JAI to DEL. My wife and two months old is suffering and I am helpless. @TataCompanies

— Vishal P (@vsp246) November 18, 2024

Another user, Giridhara Upadhayaya, wrote on X: “@airindia is not helping passengers from Paris to Bengaluru stranded in Jaipur since 12 noon.there is a mother with 2 months baby and they are not in the mood to assist. Very inhuman staff…(sic)”

Sources said that, amid growing protests, the passengers were ultimately sent to Delhi on a bus.

“Arranging an alternate flight would have taken more time than sending the passengers on a bus,” a source said.

New Delhi:

An Air India flight from Delhi to London was diverted to Copenhagen on Sunday due to a medical emergency, according to an airline official.

A male passenger who was feeling ill was de-planed at Copenhagen (Denmark) and taken to a local hospital for medical attention. Later, the flight departed for London, the airline official said.

“Our ground colleagues at Copenhagen airport did their best to minimise inconvenience caused to all the guests due to the diversion,” the official added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

An Air India plane. File
| Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI

Passengers of a San Francisco-bound Air India flight had a tough time at the Delhi airport on May 30 evening as the departure was delayed for more than six hours due to a technical issue with the aircraft.

The flight AI 183, which was to be operated with a Boeing 777 aircraft and take off at around 1530 hours on Thursday, has been rescheduled and will now take off at 1500 hours on Friday, according to an airline official.

Some passengers of the flight took to social media complaining about the delay and one of them said that there was no air conditioning in the plane.

The airline official said the aircraft had developed a technical issue and engineering checks were carried out.

Due to the delay, the crew had crossed the Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) and also if the flight had taken off, it would have reached San Francisco when there are night landing restrictions there, the official added.

The flight is now scheduled to take off at 1500 hours on Friday, the official said and added that passengers were offered the options of full refund, complimentary rescheduling and hotel accommodation.

Rise in number of flight delays

In March, the aviation security watchdog Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued new guidelines that will allow the exit of passengers from an aircraft through an airport departure gate in case there is a long delay in operating the flight after boarding.

The directive from the BCAS had come against the backdrop of rising instances of congestion and flight delays, resulting in passengers getting stuck in aircraft after boarding for long hours.

BCAS Director General Zulfiquar Hasan, on April 1, said the guidelines will help in ensuring “less harassment” for passengers and they would not have to keep sitting inside an aircraft for long hours after boarding.

In case of long flight delays and other emergencies after boarding, passengers will be permitted to exit through the departure gate of the airport concerned.

“Airport operators have to make arrangements for the infrastructure, including for screening, for implementing the guidelines,” he said and added that a decision on deboarding the passengers will be taken by airlines and security agencies concerned.

It could not be immediately ascertained whether Air India opted to follow these guidelines.

Meanwhile, an Air India flight from Mumbai to San Francisco, which was originally scheduled to take off at 1600 hours on May 24, was rescheduled and finally departed at around 1730 hours on May 25. The inordinate delay was due to multiple reasons, including a technical glitch.

On May 24, passengers had to wait inside the aircraft for more than five hours before the flight was rescheduled for May 25.

Air India and other planes parked at the airport in Mumbai on May 9, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Air India Express has agreed to reinstate 25 cabin crew who were terminated after a large number of them reported “sick” since May 6, while the flight crew have agreed to report to duty following a meeting mediated by the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) in New Delhi on May 9.

The representatives of the airline management have also assured that all the issues raised by the cabin crew pertaining to alleged discrimination emanating from the merger with erstwhile AirAsia India and removal of allowances will be resolved. The CLC will hold another meeting on May 28 on the matter.

On the third day of the protest on “leave”, Air India Express was forced to cancel 85 flights across its network. Another Tata Group airline Air India supported it by operating flights on 20 of its routes, according to a media statement issued by Air India Express.

The CLC called a conciliation meeting after over 200 cabin crew at Air India Express started reporting “sick” from May 6 resulting in flight disruptions.

In one of the letters addressed to a cabin crew late on May 8 informing him of his immediate termination, the airline said, “Your act of reporting sick for work amounts to a concerted action with a common understanding to not operate the flight and disrupt services of the company. This is not only in violation of the applicable laws but also violates the Air India Express Limited Employees’ Service Rules.”

The Air India Express cabin crew are unhappy over “preferential treatment” for employees of the erstwhile AirAsia India resulting in certain postings granted to the latter. They also complained about unfair contractual terms which offered Air India Express an employment of one or five years, while those from AirAsia India could remain employed till they turned 58 years. They also rued removal of certain allowances including, House Rent Allowance, Dearness Allowance, among others. Air India and its low-cost international airline Air India Express were privatised in 2022 and handed over to Tata Sons. The conglomerate already owned Vistara and AirAsia India and decided to carve out two airlines of the total four it now owned by merging Air India and Vistara as well as Air India Express with AirAsia India.

Air India has been a CFM customer since 2002 when it began operating A320 neo aircraft powered by CFM56-5B engines.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Air India and CFM International have finalised the order for LEAP engines for the carrier’s new fleet of 400 narrow-body planes.

The engines will power 210 Airbus A320/A321 neo and 190 Boeing 737 MAX family aircraft.

“Both companies also signed a multi-year services agreement that will cover the airline’s entire fleet of LEAP engines,” CFM said in a release on Thursday.

The order was first announced in February.

Air India has been a CFM customer since 2002 when it began operating A320 neo aircraft powered by CFM56-5B engines.

In 2017, the airline began operating the A320 neo, becoming the first LEAP-1A-powered operator in India. The airline currently has 27 LEAP-1A-powered A320neo family aircraft in its fleet, the release said.

Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson said, “We are delighted to celebrate with CFM a major deal that will play a key role in our future development.”

CFM International President and CEO Gaël Méheust said the order strengthens its presence in India.

Earlier this year, Air India placed orders for 470 aircraft, including 70 wide-body ones. CFM International is an equal joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines.

By the end of December 2023, Mumbai would have an equal number of domestic departures as Delhi which currently has 78 daily domestic departures. File

Notwithstanding the uncertainty over the brand name continuing after its merger with Air India by April 2024, Vistara, the joint venture of Tata Sons & Singapore Airlines (SIA), continues to scale up its operations, mostly from Mumbai. 

The airline’s CEO said more international flights would be operated from Mumbai, which has become Vistara’s sizeable hub, in the coming months as more aircraft join the fleet.

“Mumbai will remain a focus of growth because we have added so much domestic capacity to help grow our international connections,” said CEO Vinod Kannan. “Today, we operate 12 international flights from Mumbai as compared with 7 from Delhi and more international flights will be added from Mumbai in the coming months,” he added.

He said Vistara, which currently has 54 daily domestic departures from Mumbai, will increase the number of departures to 67 from August. By the end of December 2023, Mumbai would have an equal number of domestic departures as Delhi which currently has 78 daily domestic departures. 

Vistara will add 10 more aircraft including three Boeing 787s by March 2024 to take the fleet size to 70 by the time of merger. And most of these aircraft will be deployed in the international sector including Europe, Mr. Kannan said.

Stating that a consultant had been onboarded for the branding part of the combined entity, and no decision had been taken on the future of brand Vistara, he said, “We continue to do what we do best. We will continue to add destinations, aircraft and celebrate the wins.”

“We have not paused or taken a breather. Ultimately, we have to come up to certain level where the combined entity can together move to the next level,”

He said the airline was on track for the merger and various approvals were being received. He said out of the four airlines of the Tata Group, only two Air Operator Certificates (AOC) would be retained, one for the full-service carrier and the other for the low-cost carrier. 

“Whether there would be a sub-brand or there will be a merger of the brands and whether there will be one brand, these are still being discussed,” he said.

“But in the aviation context there are not so many examples of people running sub brands successfully and doing well. So, as much as we love our brand, these things are important,” he added.