Informing that the revamp of the national flag carrier Air India was on course, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran asked for time to turn it around into a world-class airline.
“The transformation is happening in human resources. We have completely revamped the technology. We are revamping engineering and ground handling. The entire fleet will get changed. We have made one of the biggest [aircraft] orders. And that’s a very bold bet!” Chandrasekaran stated during a candid interaction with Business Today magazine’s editor Sourav Majumdar at the BT Mindrush & BT Best CEOs Awards event in Mumbai Wednesday.
He said that Air India’s ability to operate flights to any destination in the world was only limited by its fleet size and the overall aviation infrastructure. Otherwise, the demand for international flights from India was humongous. This led them to reduce the number of flights from the time Tata group acquired the airline from the government in January 2022.
“We need the infrastructure. We need the airports and the lounges. We are working with everyone. But it’s going to take time. We are accelerating and I hope that we can start to show a semblance of the new Air India… But we need the scale,” said Chandrasekaran.
The scale would come once deliveries of the 470 narrow and widebody aircraft ordered by the airline with Airbus and Boeing start from July this year.
He disclosed that the $128 billion salt to software group was mindful of the challenges that would be coming their way while bidding for Air India as a lot of things would need to be fixed.
“But the good thing is that one billion people want Air India to succeed. Everyone in this country is rooting for Air India. And you can’t have a better tailwind than that,” declared Chandrasekaran.
He said that he received up to five messages every day on Air India via email and WhatsApp. While some emails were from individuals who wanted to work with the airline, others were about passenger feedback on flights.
“Where we can act, we act. Otherwise, we ask them to be patient and give us some more time,” he said.