AI MD & CEO campbell wilsonAn aviation giant of Singapore Airlines on Tuesday gave a ringside view of how the Maharaja’s kingdom is being rebuilt brick-by-brick in a three-stage process – taxiing, take off and climb – that will take the airline’s fleet from the current three to three. Guna will see around 120 over the next five years and eventually move to all new aircraft.
AI aims for 30% market share in both domestic and international skies, both organically (on its own) and inorganically (possibly by merging Vistara with AI and certainly with AirAsia India). together) will be obtained. ai express,
In the first “taxi” phase, the AI is tackling “anything that tarnishes or continues to tarnish the brand.” The second “take-off phase” will see accelerated investment in systems, processes, people and equipment, including aircraft, “This will be necessary to bring AI to the heights we aspire to. By the end of the fifth (stage 3) we will then We all realize from the board and through the organization that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Building an AI One who represents India in such a way that India deserves to be represented around the world.(Of course) it is not T20 but Test match.
In the near future beginning next year, he hopes to address the issue of filthy-broken seats and poor inflight entertainment (IFE) on the airline’s existing wide body fleet that ranges from medium (like Paris/Tokyo) to ultra long. Hall (eg Paris/Tokyo). San Francisco/Vancouver) routes.
Tata acquired AI and AI Express this January. Since then it has dealt with the issues plaguing the Maharaja during his decades of state ownership by improving punctuality; gradual re-airing of grounded aircraft; Providing refund of about Rs 250 crore to COVID and improving the onboard food and website. “We have put in a lot of effort in the last nine months to improve the onboard experience of the passengers. The first is to restore many long-lived ground planes (read make them airworthy again). The plane was cannibalized to keep the fleet flying. The airline was short of funds and funds not only for seats and IFE but to fly the aircraft,” said 52-year-old Wilson.
AI 70 narrow body planes out of which 54 are currently serviceable. The remaining 16 will progressively return to service by early 2023. Similarly, AI’s widebody fleet currently consists of 43 aircraft, of which 33 are operational. The remaining aircraft will be progressively returned to service by early 2023.
Now they have turned their attention to the onboard product. The five former Delta Boeing 777 long-range aircraft being leased will come in a new three class configuration – economy, premium economy and business – to be deployed on US routes starting next month. The airline is in talks to lease more wide-body aircraft. The existing wide body aircraft’s seats, carpets, cushions and IFE will be repaired early next year.
“We are in discussions with suppliers to refurbish the interiors of existing wide body aircraft. There is a lot of engineering work that needs to be done. It’s not a short process, but we are committed to making it happen,” Wilson said.
Asked about integrating the four Tata airlines – Vistara, AirAsia India, AI and AI Express – Wilson said AI will have a full-service and low-cost unit. “We will deploy the best business model for the market we are being offered. The domestic market is primarily low-cost, although there are clearly some business routes that guarantee full-service operation. International long haul is full service but can be a combination of the two in the hinterland. It makes sense to treat and sell the network as a single network. People are quite fine with a low cost product for up to 3-4 hours. The full service is likely to come in internationally and add to the low cost domestically,” Wilson said.
AI is in talks with original equipment manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus to add new aircraft. IndiGo will start deployment of single isle Airbus A321 Extra Long Range (XLR) on routes up to 7 hours. AI is keeping that option open as it is yet to order the narrow body and may go for some longer range versions of the same.
“When we place an order for narrow body aircraft, we have the option of getting many different variants including long range aircraft. Traveling long distances in a narrow-bodied aircraft is not the same as traveling long distances in a wide-bodied aircraft from the point of view of the passenger. Fares are high on a wide body of full service carriers. The cost per unit on a wide body is lower than that of a narrow body. From both unit yield and cost, wide body (Medium Hall International) operation is better if the market is large,” he said.
Will the premium economy product coming to five Boeing 777s become a permanent feature for AI wide bodies? “We’ll be leaning towards whether we make premium economy a permanent feature on the aircraft we’re refurbishing and that we’re buying,” he said.
The group expects Air India to benefit once passenger confidence is restored and premium class passengers come in. “From 2014 to September 2022, Air India was never number one in punctuality (domestic flights). There has been a lot of progress and we are again number one in domestic punctuality.
AI is one of the few airlines that still flies over Russian airspace, giving it the advantage of taking the shortest routes between India and the West. US carriers, which do not fly much over Russia, have scaled down their India operations or postponed the launch of new routes. United has suspended its Delhi-San Francisco and Mumbai-Newark runs since Russia’s war on Ukraine. Delta has not resumed flights to India after Kovid. US carriers’ proposed routes between Bengaluru and Seattle and San Francisco have been postponed. Therefore, AI has a unique advantage. Recognizing that there are a lot of opportunities, Wilson said: “Most countries, most airlines are looking for opportunities for their planes. In AI you’ve got opportunities to find planes. So we’ve leased five Boeing 777s and Will lease more. There is a significant opportunity.”
He believes that the old fleet of AI will continue to present challenges. “We have found it difficult to obtain certain components in some cases as the SEAT product is quite old and in some cases is no longer in production. Then you throw in the supply chain constraints that every industry is facing, (the process) slower than we expected. But we are making progress. We are working with manufacturers to repair our wide body aircraft’s IFE systems. Hopefully we’re a few weeks away from having business class IFE work on all of our wide body aircraft. This could happen by the end of this month. Then all the economy at the beginning of next year, in January or later,” Wilson said.
Despite this, the problems could be recurring on older fleets that faced lack of maintenance during AI’s state-owned days. “The challenge is that some of the seats are quite old. The design of many of these components is not as robust as today’s seats. So we can fix a seat today and have the same problem again in a month’s time. He is building a supply of parts to repair things that keep breaking. We are sourcing to ship sets of seats anywhere in the world that other airlines no longer require for us to purchase and install on our aircraft. We are all trying. After largely solving the punctuality issue and refund issue, and improving the food and website, this is the number one ting that customers are concerned about. IFE we are solving,” he said.
There have been several cases of packed Boeing 777 toilets in recent weeks. When asked about this, Wilson said: “There are many reasons why toilets are packed. In many cases, and I hate to say so, this is what people put the darlings down on. The number of people throwing in (smaller) clothes and thicker paper towels seems to have increased recently. That system is not designed to pick up towels. It is as much a matter of education as it is about mechanical solutions. Some newer aircraft are designed to deal with this kind of stuff better. But the B777 is not the latest model of the aircraft and is not as tolerant.”
It will be five years later that these issues may finally be a thing of the past when a new AI moves into a fleet of new aircraft with new systems. Just as Rome was not built in a day, it will take time to rebuild the lost empire of the Maharaja.
