Vihaan.AI: Air India to increase its market share by over 30% in domestic market in 5 years

The airline is expected to soon place an order for around 200 narrow-body A320 Neo jets and widebody aircraft. These are likely to be delivered by the beginning of next fiscal.

Air India last week announced that it will progressively induct 30 new aircraft, including 5 wide-body Boeing planes, from December this year, to boost its domestic and international services.

Also Read | Tata Sons plans to raise $4 billion to breathe life into Air India: Report

The Tata Group is also planning to raise $4 billion to infuse fresh capital into Air India and refinance costly debt.

The plan focused on customer service, technology, product, reliability, and hospitality.

Also Read | Air India to induct 30 planes over next 15 months

As part of Vihaan.AI, Air India has laid out a detailed roadmap with clear milestones that will focus on dramatically growing both its network and fleet, revamping its customer proposition, enhancing reliability and on-time performance, taking a leadership role in technology, sustainability, and innovation, while aggressively investing in the best talent in the industry.

“This is the beginning of a historic transformation for Air India, and the dawn of a new era. We are laying the foundation for a brave new Air India, with a renewed sense of purpose and incredible momentum. Vihaan.AI is our transformation plan to make Air India the world class airline it once was, and that it deserves to be again. We are absolutely focussed on being recognized as a world-class airline serving global customers, with a proudly Indian heart,” Campbell Wilson, MD, and CEO, Air India said in a press release.

He added that a slew of initiatives in areas like refurbishing cabins, serviceable seats, in-flight entertainment system are already underway.

Air India is also adopting proactive maintenance and refining flight schedules to enhance on-time performance.

The airline last week also announced that it will operate 20 new weekly flights to Qatar from October 30 expecting the demand to shoot up during the FIFA World Cup that will be hosted by the Gulf country in November-December.

The new flights to Doha, Qatar's capital, will be operated from Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

Currently, the airline's narrow-body fleet stands at 70 aircraft. Out of them, 54 are in service and the remaining 16 aircraft will progressively return to service by early 2023. Air India's wide-body fleet stands at 43 aircraft, of which 33 are operational. The rest will return to service by early 2023.

In July, Air India’s market share shrank to 8.4 percent, while market shares of Vistara and AirAsia India, the Tata group’s other two airlines, stood at 10.4 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively, according to data compiled by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Go First and SpiceJet’s market share stood at 8.2 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

The airline will be inducting 5 wide-body Boeing and 25 Airbus narrow-body planes over the next 15 months. The aircraft being leased are 21 Airbus A320 neos, 4 Airbus A321 neos and 5 Boeing B777-200LRs.
Air India's narrow-body fleet stands at 70 aircraft. Out of them, 54 are in service and the remaining 16 aircraft will progressively return to service by early 2023. The wide-body fleet stands at 43 aircraft, of which 33 are operational. The rest will return to service by early 2023, as per PTI.