Tata-Owned Air India Wants To Capture 30% Share Of Domestic Traffic; Unveils Transformation Plan

Air India is gunning for a domestic market share of 30 per cent and to significantly strengthen its international operations in the next five years.

Vihaan 

To that end it has formed a comprehensive transformation plan called ‘Vihaan.AI’ which outlines a detailed road map for the next five years.

In Sanskrit, Vihaan signifies the dawn of a new era.

It was developed after extensive feedback from Air India employees.

As per the plan the focus will be on dramatically growing both its network and fleet.

Ambitions

The carrier also plans to develop a completely revamped customer proposition which includes improving reliability and on-time performance.

Alongside that it also aims to take a leadership position in technology, sustainability, and innovation, as well as aggressively investing behind the best industry talent.

“Over the next 5 years, Air India will strive to increase its market share to at least 30 per cent in the domestic market while significantly growing the international routes from the present market share. The plan is aimed at putting Air India on a path to sustained growth, profitability and market leadership,” the airline said.

It had a domestic market share of 8.4 per cent in July, as per the latest data from aviation regulator DGCA.

Five pillars, three phases

The plan will prioritize five key pillars — exceptional customer experience, robust operations, industry-best talent, industry leadership, and commercial efficiency and profitability.

An AI release said the immediate focus of the airline remains on fixing the basics and readying itself for growth.

This is the Taxiing Phase.

“The more medium-to-long term focus will be on building for excellence and establishing scale to become a global industry leader (Take Off & Climb phases),” the release said.

Customer-oriented initiatives 

Air India MD and CEO Campbell Wilson said the transformation has already started with a slew of initiatives in areas like refurbishing cabins, serviceable seats and in-flight entertainment systems.

“We are also adopting proactive maintenance and refining flight schedules to enhance on-time performance. Our fleet expansion will involve a combination of both narrow-bodied and wide-bodied aircraft to cater to varied network needs,” he added.

Fleet

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 rest will return to service by early 2023.