Air India completes one year after its return to Tata group

NEW DELHI: Air India on Friday has completed one year after its return with Tata group. On the occasion, the airline's Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson also sent out an e-mail congratulating and thanking the employees of the company. In just one year, the airline managed to achieve many milestones while still dealing with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. During this one year, the total operating aircraft increased by 27 per cent to 100 while the number of average daily flights increased by 30 per cent.

According to achievements mentioned in a company statement, Air India's average daily passenger uplift increased by 72 per cent, its average daily revenue has doubled while the average daily frequency per domestic route has risen by 81 per cent. On international flights, the weekly flights of the airline abroad increased by 63 per cent with 16 new international routes being launched or announced while the frequency on 9 others increased.

The call centre manpower has more than doubled which had reduced average wait time by nearly 90 per cent. According to the airline, its on-time performance has improved from 70 per cent in December 21 to an average of nearly 90 per cent. The airline managed to cut a backlog of one million aged refunds to zero, with new cases now turned around in short order.

Air India also said it launched the first phase of new customer interfaces, including website, mobile application, as well as proactive customer notification systems while adding 1,200 professionals across key functions for upgradation and support. The airline is also in the process of co-locating employees in a centralised location in National Capital Region, ahead of a new modern facility in Gurugram opening in mid-2023.

The CEO also thanked the entire management team for the hard work the employees put in over this past year and especially the erstwhile Air Indians (before the airline returned to Tata), who have experienced probably the most significant period of change in your entire working lives, with all the trepidation, uncertainty and adjustment. On hard decisions taken by the airline, Campbell Wilson said, "Even as we work on improving Air India, we have not shied away from other ambitious actions, such as merging Air India Express with Air Asia, or Vistara with Air India, or kicking off the establishment of a new InfoTech Centre, or an Aviation Academy."

The CEO in the email said the progress over the last 12 months has been "nothing short of stunning," and added, "There is of course much more that needs to be done, and everyone - internally and externally -- is hungry for us to do it."