AI sees growth from domestic, short international flights in 2025: CEO Campbell Wilson

NEW DELHI: Air India will see most of the air traffic growth coming from domestic and short-haul international operations in 2025 as more narrow-body planes are joining the fleet and legacy wide-body aircraft will be going for retrofit next year, the airline's chief Campbell Wilson said on Thursday.

The Tata Group-owned airline, which has embarked on a five-year transformation journey, expects to have a fleet of 400 planes by 2027.

Currently, the total fleet strength of Air India Group, including Air India Express, is around 300 aircraft.

During a select media briefing, Wilson, who has been at the helm of Air India for more than two years, said the airline group has a domestic market share of around 29 per cent and 55 per cent on the metro to metro routes.

On top 120 domestic routes, the market share is about 40 per cent, he said.

According to him, the retrofit of legacy wide-body aircraft will start in early 2025.

"We had hoped to start retrofit of 787s and 777s by now. Unfortunately, the global supply chains in some areas are still recovering and seats in particular are a challenge...

"Once it (retrofit) starts in 2025, we will be doing 3-4 aircraft every month until the full legacy 40 wide-body aircraft are completed," Wilson said.

About growth for 2025, he said it will primarily come from domestic and short-haul international flights as most of the aircraft that are coming in are narrow-body ones.

"We are also taking the aircraft for the refit programme. So, the number of wide-body aircraft available will shrink a little bit," he added.

As part of Tata Group consolidating its airline business, Air India has merged Vistara with itself and AIX Connect has been integrated with Air India Express.

The CEO and MD of Air India noted that there is a delay in getting all the 50 white tail aircraft, which were earlier expected to join the fleet by December this year.

Out of the total 50 white tail Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, at least 35 have joined the fleet. These planes are being operated by Air India Express.

"50 white tail aircraft, all of them were to come by December this year... They will stretch up to June next year and that in itself has a little bit of impact...," Wilson said while responding to a query about delays due to issues at Boeing, including the recent strike.

"It is not clear for how long the impact will be. Six months is reasonable for some aircraft...," he said.

Generally, white tail planes are those that were originally manufactured for a particular airline and later taken by another airline.

Meanwhile, there are issues with Air India's legacy wide-body planes, including complaints about service quality, operating long haul flights to North America.

Against this backdrop, Wilson said a lot of efforts are being put in place to address the issues.

"We got an opportunity to lease aircraft. If we had not leased those aircraft, it would have been snapped up by other airlines. Wide-body aircraft is barely available in the industry and delivery of new aircraft has been delayed.

"What it would have meant is that between privatisation and being able to expand the North America network, there would have been a four-five year wait for customers, that is absence of non-stop product from India," he said.

The retrofit of Air India's legacy wide body planes -- Boeing 787 and 777s -- will start early next year and is expected to be complete by mid-2027.

Responding to relatively low on-time performance in recent times, Wilson said, "Do we wish that things had been smoother for the punctuality part? Of course... the alternative could be not to have flights for a period of four to five years".

"So, we took the view that there is an opportunity, appetite for growth in the market and that we should take it. On balance, we have taken millions of people on these aircraft. People are happy that the service exists," he noted.

Further, he added that aircraft were neglected over a long period of time and work has to be done on many things. "Brick by brick we build the wall."