Last week, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted about his horrid experience of travelling by Air India, which put the harsh spotlight back on the airline and its services. The minister lamented about the poor condition of the seat allotted to him. Expectedly, there was an outpouring of complaints on social media.
Air India, it seems, cannot catch a break. In fact, the airline has been under greater scrutiny since changing ownership because of the weight of expectations the passengers have from the Tata group. Alas, the group does not have a magic wand.
The aircraft in question is an A321neo, which joined the fleet factory fresh in 2023. However, like most planes during that period, it faced challenges obtaining seats due to supply chain issues. Air India had to make do with either older seats or whatever was available in the market.
A detailed investigation will conclude if the seat had a problem or it's the nature of the seat type which is being called problematic. Even as the investigation takes its own course, the aircraft has not been grounded and continues to operate scheduled commercial service for the airline.
The incident has put the focus back on Air India, its turnaround, equipment and service yet again. By its own admission, Air India is in the middle of a five-year turnaround plan titled Vihaan.AI, which started in September 2022.
It has completed two phases: Taxi (Fix the Basics) and Take-Off (Build for Excellence). Yet, the airline has continued to miss its own deadlines.
In late 2022, the airline said that it had already started the preparatory work for the refurbishment of the legacy aircraft at a cost of USD 400 million with the first refurbished aircraft entering service in mid-2024. The reality is that no legacy widebody aircraft has gone for refurbishment thus far, with the first one now expected later this year.
Its narrowbody aircraft refurbishment started in September with the intended date of rejoining the plane being December. The aircraft is yet to start commercial operations. While the supply chain issues are known worldwide, the announcements that Air India makes are possibly getting itself into trouble. The airline’s bosses may want to state realistic timelines or better still, not commit to deadline to avoid PR nightmares.
The 787 retrofit will commence in April, and the first retrofitted plane will re-enter service in October 2025, according to the airline. Air India expects two to three 787s to be inducted per month thereafter.
The 777 retrofit will now commence in early 2026. The airline blamed production constraints at the selected seat supplier for the delay. In the meantime, Air India will refresh the 777's interiors.
Air India is not alone. Worldwide, airlines have seen delivery delays and some carriers have been forced to delay induction. Some European airlines have had to change service levels until the seats were available, certified, or both.
When it comes to retrofitting and revamping, the challenges are twofold. First, getting the seats and other products, and second, getting a slot at the MRO to do the retrofit.
Blocking a slot and not utilising it for lack of seats leads to losing out on the valuable slot with the next one may not be available. Air India is currently stuck in one of these.
The merger of Vistara into Air India led to a sudden surge in three-class aircraft, including a better-maintained one, available to the merged Air India. The airline smartly deployed them on top metro routes, ensuring a standard experience on the lucrative and high-volume routes.
While it will take time for the hard product to be streamlined, the airline has said it has fixed the basics, especially on the First and Business class seats. At regular intervals, there are isolated cases of people in the front cabins complaining about the hardware. Statistically, the numbers are few, but the complaints have not gone completely.
The service aspect is also impacted, and supply chain constraints are to blame. The rollout of new cutlery and new branding has been slow. It may take two more years for everything to be streamlined regarding livery, inflight branding, and service standards.
The issue faced by the Union minister may be a non-issue to begin with if the seats are found perfectly safe and certified and refurbishment continues to be delayed, but that has not stopped passengers from patronising Air India. The airline has been recording very high load factors in recent weeks, according to the daily data published by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
In fact, the full-service carrier is punching above market leader IndiGo and its own low-cost subsidiary, Air India Express. Is it the Tata name that is leading to passengers asking for more? Had the passengers expected the same, had Air India still been government-owned?
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