To Increase Profitability And Enhance Services, Air India Begins Refitting Of Narrow Aircraft, Focus On Wide Planes In 2025

Air India plans to make significant progress on key initiatives in 2025, including refitting wide-body and narrow-body aircraft, while enhancing practices and processes to achieve profitability, CEO and MD Campbell Wilson announced on Friday (27 December).

Since Tata Group acquired the airline in January 2022, efforts have been underway to transform the loss-making carrier. This year, Air India expanded its order book to 570 aircraft by placing orders for an additional 100 planes.

In a message to staff, Wilson highlighted 2024 as a transformative year, noting achievements such as the completion of mergers involving Air India Express, AirAsia India, and Vistara. "These mergers position us as the fourth largest business, by revenue, in the Tata group," he said.

The Air India group now operates 300 aircraft across its brands, serving over 60 million passengers annually across more than 100 destinations worldwide.

Looking ahead, Wilson emphasised that 2025 will focus on advancing initiatives like aircraft refitting. "Refitting of narrow-body aircraft has commenced, while that of legacy wide-body planes is expected to start in 2025," he said.

The airline is also set to enhance its service standards. "Air India's service standards will be elevated, raising the bar on what we consider 'good,' and more consistently delivering to those new expectations," Wilson added.

To streamline operations, Air India is optimising the deployment of its best narrow-body and wide-body aircraft on high-demand routes.

Financially, the airline reduced its losses to Rs 4,444.10 crore in 2023-24 from Rs 11,387.96 crore in 2022-23, while turnover increased by 23.69 per cent to Rs 38,812 crore during the same period.

Earlier this month, Air India ordered 100 additional Airbus planes, including 10 wide-body A350s and 90 narrow-body A320s, as part of its expansion plans.

Wilson reaffirmed the airline's focus on efficiency and profitability, stating, "We are not just consistent, we are also efficient and, ultimately, profitable."