Air India Privatisation

Air India expands key international routes for summer 2025 - Check details

The airline will bolster its operations across the United Kingdom, Europe, Far East Asia, and Africa to enhance connectivity for travellers

Air India to strengthen practices in 2025, become profitable: CEO

Wilson stated that the Group employs 30,000 people who help its two airlines fly over 60 million passengers annually to more than 100 destinations within India and internationally

Air India announces changes in its international routes with new aircraft

The airline is looking to increase flexibility and connectivity for intercontinental travel between North America, Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia through its hubs in Delhi and Mumbai

Alcohol-related incidents on Air India flights down in past two years: CEO

He also highlighted the addition of around 9,000 new employees during this period, which significantly reduced the average age of staff from 54 to 35. The average age of cabin crew is now 28

Air India transformation is Test match, not T20; more work to do: Campbell

Air India's transformation journey is a cricket Test match and not a T20, and currently, it is like lunch on the third day of a Test match, the airline's Chief Campbell Wilson said on Thursday. Tata Group-owned Air India has embarked on an ambitious five-year transformation plan 'Vihaan.AI' and little over two years of the programme has been completed. "I acknowledge that we are not ultimately where we aspire to be and we have some work to do... There is a reason why Vihaan.AI programme is for five years... We are little over two years... the first years have been a good start," Wilson, who was born in New Zealand and took over the reins of Air India in 2022, said. "It is a Test match and not a T20, we are at about lunch on Day 3," Wilson, the CEO and MD of Air India, said during a select media briefing. A Test match is for five days while a T20 gets completed in less than four hours. Since Tatas took over Air India in January 2022, it has consolidated the airline business -- Air

Air India rejigs senior management level employees ahead of Vistara merger

Air India Group on Friday announced a rejig at the senior management level ahead of the merger of Vistara with Air India. As part of this exercise, Vistara chief executive officer Vinod Kanan, who has also been holding the role of Chief Integration Officer for the merger of the two entities, will continue in the latter role post-merger. Besides, he will be a member of the management committee and report directly to Air India CEO Campbell Wilson, a statement said. Full-service carrier Vistara, which is a 51:49 per cent joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, is all set to merge with Air India on November 12. It also said that Deepak Rajawat, Chief Commercial Officer of Vistara will take up the position of Chief Financial Officer at the low-cost arm Air India Express, reporting to its chief executive officer Aloke Singh and also support Air India Group CFO Sanjay Sharma in strategic initiatives and projects. Consequently, Vikas Agarwal, the current CFO of Air India .

Tata aviation cuts losses by Rs 9,077 cr in FY24, Air India revenue up 24%

Air India, which was privatised in 2022, achieved its highest consolidated revenue of Rs 51,365 crore for FY24, marking a 24 per cent rise from the prior year

Modi govt departs from privatisation plans, might overhaul state-run firms

The aim is to raise $24 billion in the current April-March fiscal year and re-invest the funds in the companies

AI Express cabin crew union, airline management discuss various issues

Representatives of a cabin crew union at Air India Express and airline management on Tuesday held discussions on salary and other issues during the meeting convened by the labour department as part of the ongoing conciliation proceedings, according to a source. The next meeting is scheduled for July 2, the source said. The Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU), which represents a section of the cabin crew at the airline, had filed a complaint before the labour department last year. Following the complaint, a conciliation process is happening under the Industrial Disputes Act. Room sharing, lack of proper support, revised salary structure and alleged differential treatment of experienced crew members of Air India Express are among the issues flagged by the union. The source, on the condition of anonymity, said various issues were discussed at the meeting held on Tuesday, including those related to salary and accommodation for cabin crew during layovers. At the meeting, the ...

Air India gives increments to staff, announces performance bonus for pilots

Air India on Thursday announced annual salary increments for its staff, and also introduced an annual target performance bonus for pilots, according to sources. This is the first appraisal process after Tata Group took over the loss-making airline a little over two years ago. On Thursday, Air India CHRO Ravindra Kumar GP announced salary increments for employees, with effect from April 1, 2024, as well as performance bonus payouts for FY 2023-24 based on company and individual performance, sources said. They said that Air India, which is in the process of revamping itself under a five-year transformation plan, is providing competitive salary increments to attract and retain talent as part of larger efforts to have a performance-driven and meritocratic culture among the employees. Air India has around 18,000 employees. The airline has rolled out annual appraisals for all employees, who joined before December 31, 2023, including ground staff, cabin crew and pilots. The appraisals ar

A-I ceased to be 'State' or its instrumentality post disinvestment: SC

Air India Limited (AIL) ceased to be State or its instrumentality under Article 12 of the Constitution after its disinvestment and take over by the Tata Group in January 2022, and no case of alleged violation of fundamental right would lie against it, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. The apex court dismissed the appeals filed against a September 20, 2022 verdict of the Bombay High Court which had disposed of four writ petitions instituted by some employees of AIL over alleged stagnation in pay and non-promotion of employees and delay in payment of wage revision arrears, among others. The top court noted that the petitions before the high court had claimed violation of Articles 14 (equality before law), 16 (equality of opportunity in matters of public employment), and 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta noted that the high court had disposed of the pleas on the ground of non-maintainability of the writ

Intervene urgently, resolve AI Express strike: Venugopal writes to Scindia

After Air India Express cancelled several domestic and international flights in the wake of its crew strike, Congress leader K C Venugopal on Wednesday sought immediate intervention of Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and called for urgent measures to ensure the passengers are not affected. In a letter to Scindia, Venugopal said the flight cancellations are causing agony to fellow citizens, especially those going to the Middle East. He said Air India Express is a low cost airline that is essential to connect our hardworking middle class workers across the world to their homeland. "When 80+ flights are cancelled due to employees' strikes, it causes huge agony to our fellow citizens, especially those in the Middle East. Wrote to the Ministry of Civil Aviation to intervene urgently and resolve the strike and restore regular Air India Express flights at the earliest," Venugopal said in a post on X while sharing his letter. "I am writing to bring to your kind attention the .

Air India Express to curtail flights amid cabin crew shortage: CEO Singh

Air India Express will curtail flights for the next few days to cope with non-availability of crew members, its CEO Aloke Singh said on Wednesday as the airline has been forced to cancel more than 90 flights due to cabin crew members reporting sick. In a message to the airline's staff, Singh said since last evening, more than 100 cabin crew members have reported sick prior to their rostered flight duty, "at the last minute, severely disrupting our operations". More than 90 flights have been disrupted due to the situation, he added. "The disruptions have cascaded across the network, forcing us to curtail the schedules over the next few days. We had to do this to cope with the non-availability of crew and to recover schedules," Singh said. Tata Group-owned Air India Express operates around 360 flights daily in the ongoing summer schedule that started in late March.

Air India Express says no recognition of workers' union amid crew protest

The statement comes hours after the airline cancelled some 26 flights and delayed 81 due to last-minute sick calls by some cabin crew members

Air India reduces cabin baggage allowance to 15 kg for lowest fare segment

Loss-making Air India has reduced the free cabin baggage allowance to 15 kilogram from 20 kilogram for the lowest economy fare segment on domestic flights. The changes have been made in the menu-based pricing model fare families that were introduced by the Tata Group-owned Air India last August, with the airline saying that a one-size-fits-all approach is no longer ideal. There are three fare families -- Comfort, Comfort Plus and Flex -- that offer different levels of benefits and fare restrictions at various price points, an airline spokesperson said on Saturday. With effect from May 2, the free cabin baggage allowance for the 'Comfort' and 'Comfort Plus' categories has been reduced to 15 kg from 20 kg and 25 kg, respectively. Prior to the introduction of the fare families concept, passengers on Air India's domestic flights were allowed to carry 25 kilograms of cabin baggage free of any additional charge. "On domestic routes in Economy Class, both 'Comfort' and 'Comfort Plus' far

Air India to start Delhi-Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam flights from June 1

Air India will start direct flights from the national capital to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam from June 1. The airline will use A320 neo aircraft with a two-class configuration to operate the flights five days a week -- Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, according to a release on Wednesday. The flights will commence from June 1. "The new service will also enable convenient one-stop connections to Vietnam via Delhi for travellers from the US, Canada, UK, and Europe," the release said. Currently, Air India flies non-stop flights to Singapore, Bangkok and Phuket (Thailand), and Yangon (Myanmar).

Weakness of Air India supported survival of airlines around India: CEO

Carrier now has the chance to seize market share and turn country into a traveller hub, says CEO Campbell Wilson

Air India, Airbus in talks to set up Rs 3,500 crore pilot training facility

The facility is expected to be formed under a joint venture between the two companies where each will have a 50% stake

Air India borrows $120 million from Japan's SMBC to buy Airbus plane

Japanese lender SMBC on Wednesday said the Tata Group-owned Air India has borrowed USD 120 million from it for purchasing a wide-body aircraft from Airbus. The transaction has partly financed Air India's purchase of an A350-900 aircraft from Airbus, which was delivered in October 2023, according to an official statement. SMBC said this is a secured debt facility through its Singapore branch, while Air India's GIFT City-headquartered arm AI Fleet Services is the borrower. The purchase is part of the mega announcement by the Tatas to buy a total of 470 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, and AI has also contributed equity. According to some reports, an Airbus A350-900 aircraft is priced above USD 300 million. "SMBC Group is pleased to expand upon its long-established relationship with Tata Group through this deal," the lender's country head for India Hiroyuki Mesaki said. He added that this is the the bank's first-of-its-kind transaction for aircraft finance lease. Nipun Aggarwal, Ai

Air India moves its computational workload to cloud; shuts two data centres

Air India has shut down its two data centres and has moved its computational workload to the cloud, a move that will help the loss-making airline save nearly USD 1 million annually. In a release on Tuesday, the Tata Group-owned airline said it has successfully migrated to a cloud-only IT infrastructure, having closed its historic data centres located in Mumbai and New Delhi. "The closure of the data centres will further result in net savings of nearly a million dollars every year," it said. The entire process of migration to the cloud was managed by Air India's people in Silicon Valley in the US, Gurugram and Kochi in India. The computational workloads were migrated to the cloud from several mainframes, hundreds of servers, a large amount of data, and hundreds of pieces of equipment. According to the release, the now-closed data centres were once used to drive innovations and automations across multiple spheres of the airline's commercial and financial functions. "We have adopted