Having wasted taxpayers’ money on piling up losses and liabilities, Air India is now embarking on a multi-stage transformation roadmap to become a “world-class global airline with the heart of India”. Flag carriers are expanding their fleets and networks, reviewing customer propositions and improving operational reliability.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson has described Air India’s return as a test match, not a T20 match. Below are some of the reforms that airlines have taken.
Viharn.AI
Last year, Air India unveiled an ambitious and transformative five-year roadmap called ‘Vihaan.AI’, which in Sanskrit means the dawn of a new era. Vihaan.AI has a detailed roadmap for Air India with clear milestones focused on dramatically growing both its network and fleet. , develop a completely revamped customer proposition, improving reliability and on-time performance.
Vihaan.AI was developed after extensive feedback from Air India employees on their aspirations and aspirations for the airline’s growth. Vihaan.AI focuses on his five key pillars: Outstanding Customer Experience, Robust Operations, Best Talent, Industry Leadership, Commercial Efficiency and Profitability. While the airline’s immediate focus remains to build on its foundations and prepare for growth (build-up phase), the longer-term focus is to build excellence and scale to become a global industry leader. (takeoff and flight). climb phase).
Air India recently completed the first phase of Vihaan.AI, called Taxi. It focused on addressing airline legacy issues at scale and laying the foundation for future growth. The end of the first phase marks the beginning of the takeoff phase, focused on developing the platforms, processes and systems necessary to build for excellence.
staff
Air India is recruiting over 4,200 cabin crew and over 900 pilots by 2023 to add new aircraft and rapidly expand its domestic and international operations. Air India currently employs around 1,600 pilots to operate 113 aircraft, but recently there have been instances of very long-haul flights being canceled or delayed due to crew shortages.
Chief Executive Campbell Wilson said in May that the company is hiring 550 flight attendants and 50 pilots each month and plans to have six widebody A350s by the end of the year. said.
Of the approximately 15,000 total employees, nearly 30% are new hires in the last 18 months. Air India has hired over 5,000 new employees by May 2023, including nearly 500 pilots and 3,200 flight attendants. The company is currently working on hiring non-flying staff, including operations, human resources, finance and ground handling.
Air India has introduced a new organizational structure for its non-operational staff with new job titles, job levels and roles that are streamlined, market competitive and productivity focused. In April this year, a similar system was introduced for flight staff, including pilots and cabin crew.
It also aims to increase discipline in the culture by illustrating the consequences of violating company policies and the respected Tata Code of Conduct,” CHRO Suresh Tripati recently told ET. Seek expertise to assess work processes and roles and ensure they are on par with industry standards.
In May, Air India launched Gurukul.AI, a new learning hub for its employees. It was created in sync with his Vihaan.AI, his five-year transformation program for the airline. Gurukul.AI is designed to create a personalized upskilling path for each employee through an assessment of each employee’s job duties, current competencies, and proficiency. The platform will integrate competency frameworks mapped to different roles within an organization and ensure access to relevant modules, the statement added.
Air India will introduce Gurukul.AI in phases while integrating new technologies and customizing the system to meet the requirements of different departments such as in-flight services, ground services and engineering. In future stages, the platform will also offer advanced AI-driven solutions for pilot training management.
Air India is using Gurukul.AI to power a personalized learning experience for all its employees, moving to a highly skilled approach to global competence creation.
operation
The Tata Group is also restructuring its route network to avoid internal competition among its four airlines. Air India announced in February that three airports – Bhubaneswar, Bagdogra and Surat – will be served by AirAsia India. This was a step to enhance network optimization following AirAsia India becoming a wholly owned subsidiary in November 2022. Additionally, Air India said it will enhance connections from Delhi and/or Mumbai to Cochin, Trivandrum, Visakhapatnam and Nagpur, enabling seamless transfers. Two subways serve long-distance international flights, allowing two-way connections between domestic and international flights.
The idea is to concentrate full-service airlines in metro-metro markets and well-connected routes, and low-cost airlines in more leisure-oriented or price-sensitive markets. “This will increase our attractiveness to both business and leisure travelers, as well as improve connectivity between major cities in the country and Air India’s rapidly expanding international network,” said Wilson. CEO said.
Air India has applied to the civil aviation regulator DGCA for an exemption from the merger law of Air India Express and AirAsia India. It is seeking approval to cross-utilize pilots and flight attendants and sell tickets under a single brand before the merger process is approved by the NCLT. Such an approval would quickly realize commercial synergies between the two airlines, allowing them to synergize route planning, advertising and ticket sales as a single entity. Reciprocal use of each other’s crew will also lead to a reduction in operating costs.
In April, Air India announced a new multi-year deal with Nasdaq-listed Saber Corporation, giving travel agents and businesses around the world access to Air India fares and seats through Saber’s global travel marketplace. I made it In addition to its logistics services, Air India also leverages Saber’s consulting expertise to determine the best routes for its existing and new fleet, the company said in a statement.
Consulting work with Saber and Air India included in-depth market assessments, development of structural designs for new hubs and schedules, detailed 10-year route network and capacity planning, and system-wide fleet allocation optimization. It is included. said the company.
Air India worked with Microsoft last December to improve productivity and reduce costs. Adopting Microsoft 365 tools and their security solutions as part of the collaboration will ensure the productivity and security of Air India employees across the organization, the company said in a statement. The enterprise-wide deployment of Microsoft technology will enable all airline employees to instantly and securely connect, communicate and collaborate with other employees anywhere in the world, the company said. I’m here.
customer experience
In April, Air India introduced a refreshed food and beverage menu in the cabins of all its international flights (excluding India) in line with its continuous improvement of the customer experience.
The menu revamp is based on guest feedback and offers travelers an assortment of gourmet meals, trendy appetizers and decadent desserts, in line with healthy eating trends and featuring local Indian ingredients. The company said it was designed to showcase culinary influences. The company’s bar menu includes a range of premium branded spirits, as well as a thoughtful wine list that includes fine wines from France and Italy.
Air India has also upgraded the design of its website www.airindia.com as part of the technology upgrade. Along with some technology upgrades, the airline changed his URL from his previous “.in” to www.airindia.com.
An airline’s website is a key factor in effectively serving its customer base and increasing direct channel revenue. Air India said the design upgrades will allow rapid deployment of new customer-friendly features that were not possible with the 20-year-old technology previously used. “Upgrades in experience management, digital marketing, analytics and personalization technologies deployed on airline websites are expected to contribute to significantly improving the customer experience,” the airline said.
Air India sends customer surveys daily and has received positive feedback through a digital customer feedback mechanism, CEO Wilson said in June. A Net Promoter Score (NPS)-based customer feedback mechanism received more than 140,000 responses in three months, the airline said in a release.
Over the past three months, the company has expanded NPS to cover the entire physical customer journey, from check-in to lounges to in-flight experiences to the arrival process. will also be extended to
Navy
Last month, Air India ramped up orders for 250 Airbus aircraft and 220 new Boeing airliners worth $70 billion. The order includes 70 widebody aircraft, including 34 Airbus A350-1000s and six A350-900s, and 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 10 Boeing 777Xs. It also includes 140 Airbus A320neo, 70 Airbus A321neo and 190 Boeing 737MAX narrowbody aircraft.
The company also signed an option to purchase an additional 70 aircraft from Boeing, including 50 737 MAX and 20 787 Dreamliners. The Airbus A350 will lead the delivery of the new aircraft later this year, with the bulk of the orders expected to arrive after mid-2025.
Air India has already started taking delivery of 11 leased B777s and 25 A320s to accelerate the expansion of its fleet and network. Wilson said the company’s ambitious fleet renewal and expansion program will enable the company to operate state-of-the-art, fuel-efficient aircraft across its network within five years. .
Air India currently has a fleet of 122 aircraft and is expanding its fleet. The airline plans to introduce six A350s and eight B777s by the end of this year. So far, the company has leased nine B777s. Air India’s president Wilson said the real transformation will come after next year, when the company will acquire all leased aircraft and start retrofitting older aircraft, with deliveries starting from an order of 470 aircraft.
Air India has also pledged more than $400 million to upgrade the interiors of all its widebody aircraft with new seats and entertainment systems.
(Information provided by agency)
