Air India is intensifying efforts to enhance the reliability of its fleet, with initiatives that include adopting global best practices in collaboration with partners in Singapore and retrofitting its older aircraft, CEO Campbell Wilson informed employees on Friday.
The Tata Group-owned airline has been under heightened regulatory scrutiny following the June 12 crash of a Boeing 787-8 aircraft that claimed 260 lives. In response, the carrier is moving to stabilise operations and strengthen safety measures.
The retrofit of all legacy 27 A320 neo aircraft will be completed by September 2025. Against the backdrop of some Air India aircraft facing technical snags, Wilson told the staff that the carrier is working on improving the reliability of its planes, especially the legacy fleet of Airbus A320 family aircraft, Boeing 787s and 777s. As part of improving the operational efficiency, Air India is working closely with Singapore Airlines, which holds a 25.1 per cent stake in the airline. Air India is collaborating with Singapore Airlines to ”exchange notes on industry best practices”, Wilson said at the townhall.
The sources said Air India is working with the Singaporean carrier on various areas of improvement, including engineering and operations. Wilson, who is the CEO and MD of Air India, said the airline has also identified various bottlenecks regarding supply chain and availability of spare parts, and is working with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to resolve the issues. According to him, the airline’s Net Promoter Score (NPS), an indicator of customer satisfaction, saw a dip from June 13-17 due to Iran airspace closure and disruptions, additional safety pause and engineering checks and sentiment around AI171 accident. Later, NPS rose to 35 in July from 18 in June, he added. Air India has a fleet of around 190 planes and aims to complete the retrofit of all the legacy Dreamliners by the middle of 2027. There are a total of 33 Dreamliners with Air India — 26 legacy Boeing 787-8s and 7 Boeing 787-9s.
Once the first retrofitted legacy Dreamliner is back in December, the airline will start sending two legacy Dreamliners every month for retrofit. These retrofitted planes will have a three-class configuration each comprising 20 Business Class, 25 Premium Economy and 205 Economy class seats. Currently, the airline’s Boeing 787-8s have 18 Business and 238 Economy class seats each. The carrier has already started the heavy refresh programme of the legacy Boeing 777s. Heavy refresh of an aircraft includes having new carpets, seat covers, cushions and fixing broken seats.
The refresh of these planes is expected to complete by the end of this year. On June 12, the airline’s Boeing 787-8 aircraft enroute to London Gatwick crashed into a building soon after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people, including 241 passengers who were onboard the ill-fated plane. One passenger survived. The retrofitting of the carrier’s 27 legacy A320 is in progress, with the process being completed for 14 such planes. The remaining 13 aircraft are expected to be retrofitted by the end of September. Air India has also decided to retrofit its 13 legacy A321 ceo planes that were earlier planned to be taken out of service. In December 2022, the airline announced the USD 400 million comprehensive retrofit programme covering both legacy narrow-body and wide-body planes.
*With Agency Inputs
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