Air India will see most of the air traffic growth coming from domestic and short-haul international operations in 2025 as more narrow-body planes are joining the fleet and legacy wide-body aircraft will be going for retrofit next year, the airline’s chief Campbell Wilson said on Thursday, November 28, 2024.

The Tata Group-owned airline, which has embarked on a five-year transformation journey, expects to have a fleet of 400 planes by 2027.

Currently, the total fleet strength of Air India Group, including Air India Express, is around 300 aircraft.

Also Read: Air India, Vistara legally merged, says airlines

During a select media briefing, Wilson, who has been at the helm of Air India for more than two years, said the airline group has a domestic market share of around 29% and 55% on the metro to metro routes.

On top 120 domestic routes, the market share is about 40%, he said. According to him, the retrofit of legacy wide-body aircraft will start in early 2025.

“We had hoped to start retrofit of 787s and 777s by now. Unfortunately, the global supply chains in some areas are still recovering and seats in particular are a challenge…

“Once it (retrofit) starts in 2025, we will be doing 3-4 aircraft every month until the full legacy 40 wide-body aircraft are completed,” Mr. Wilson said.

About growth for 2025, he said it will primarily come from domestic and short-haul international flights as most of the aircraft that are coming in are narrow-body ones.

“We are also taking the aircraft for the refit programme. So, the number of wide-body aircraft available will shrink a little bit,” he added.

As part of Tata Group consolidating its airline business, Air India has merged Vistara with itself and AIX Connect has been integrated with Air India Express.

The CEO and MD of Air India noted that there is a delay in getting all 50 white-tail aircraft, which were earlier expected to join the fleet by December this year.

Out of the total 50 white-tail Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, at least 35 have joined the fleet. These planes are being operated by Air India Express.

“50 white tail aircraft, all of them were to come by December this year… They will stretch up to June next year and that in itself has a little bit of impact…,” Mr. Wilson said while responding to a query about delays due to issues at Boeing, including the recent strike.

“It is not clear for how long the impact will be. Six months is reasonable for some aircraft…,” he said.

Generally, white-tail planes are those that were originally manufactured for a particular airline and later taken by another airline.

Meanwhile, there are issues with Air India’s legacy wide-body planes, including complaints about service quality, and operating long haul flights to North America.

Against this backdrop, Mr. Wilson said a lot of efforts are being put in place to address the issues.

“We got an opportunity to lease aircraft. If we had not leased those aircraft, it would have been snapped up by other airlines. Wide-body aircraft is barely available in the industry and delivery of new aircraft has been delayed.

“What it would have meant is that between privatisation and being able to expand the North America network, there would have been a four-five year wait for customers, that is absence of non-stop product from India,” he said.

The retrofit of Air India’s legacy wide-body planes — Boeing 787 and 777s — will start early next year and is expected to be complete by mid-2027.

Responding to relatively low on-time performance in recent times, Wilson said, “Do we wish that things had been smoother for the punctuality part? Of course… the alternative could be not to have flights for a period of four to five years”.

“So, we took the view that there is an opportunity, appetite for growth in the market and that we should take it. On balance, we have taken millions of people on these aircraft. People are happy that the service exists,” he noted.

Further, he added that aircraft were neglected over a long period of time and work has to be done on many things. “Brick by brick we build the wall.”

Mumbai:

Air India Group, which has embarked on ambitious expansion plans, is expected to take delivery of a new aircraft every six days on average till the end of 2024, according to a top official.

The group, comprising Air India, Air India Express, AIX Connect and Vistara, is owned by the Tatas, which is also in the process of consolidating its airline business.

“Air India Group to take delivery of one new aircraft every six days on an average till the end of 2024,” Air India Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Campbell Wilson said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a function here for the unveiling of Air India Express’ new brand identity, Wilson also said that it is an exciting day for the group.

Tata Group took control of loss-making Air India in January 2022.

Earlier this year, Air India placed orders for 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing at USD 70 billion (based on published list prices). The deliveries of the new planes will start from November this year.

Air India Express is in the process of merging AirAsia India with itself while Vistara will be getting merged with Air India. Vistara is 51 per cent owned by Tatas, and the remaining 49 per cent is with Singapore Airlines.

According to Wilson, the merger of Air India Express and AIX Connect is close to completion.

“The difficult part of the merger has already been done…legal processes normally take 6-9 months. We are hoping it (merger) to be complete by March next year,” Air India Express Managing Director Aloke Singh said.

He said Air India Express will operate pan India, the Asia region, Southeast Asia, Gulf, and the Middle East.

“And the big benefit that we have is that being a part of the Air India Group, we are able to integrate our network and provide cross feeds and gain from feeds… our network will feed for the Air India,” he noted.

“The five-year plan that we have…the five-year target that we have…We are looking at doubling our market share on domestic India, and also doubling it in the short haul international,” Singh said.

“If you look at it as a combined entity, it is 7-8 per cent domestic market share. It is about 11-12 per cent on international short haul. Once we scale up, and once we get our new feed into commercial operation, we are really looking at growing big time and…it is not about growth just for a couple of years. It is about growth long term,” Singh said.

Air India Express on Wednesday unveiled its new brand identity and aircraft livery that mainly features the colours of orange and turquoise.

Meanwhile, Wilson said that market share is the consequence of capacity, and capacity is a consequence of factors like aircraft orders and deliveries.

“As we increase the fleet of Air India Express, the market share should go up but of course, that takes time and it will take time as deliveries come up,” he added.

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