Air India to see major expansion, increase global coverage: Airline chief

The merger of the four Tata airlines into one full-service carrier, Air India, and one low-cost carrier, Air India Express, was completed in late 2024

New Delhi: Air India, which added 100 new aircraft to its order book towards the end of 2024, is set to see major expansions and increase its global coverage in 2025, the airline’s chief executive officer Campbell Wilson said on Wednesday.

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson. (Reuters)

In his New Year greetings, Wilson said that the airline’s mergers and new aircraft deliveries have taken the Air India Group fleet to 300 aircraft and its global coverage will further increase in the years ahead.

“The merger of the four Tata airlines into one full-service carrier, Air India, and one low-cost carrier, Air India Express, was completed in late 2024. The old Vistara aircraft are now deployed on metro-to-metro domestic routes and key international destinations such as Frankfurt and Singapore,” Wilson said.

“These mergers and new aircraft deliveries have taken the Air India Group fleet to 300 aircraft. Air India’s global coverage will further increase in the years ahead, not least because of the recent addition of 100 aircraft to our order book, augmenting the earlier commitment for 470 made in 2023,” he said.

He said that more than 100 new aircraft were deployed, including India’s first Airbus A350, that are now flying from Delhi to London and New York.

“These are part of one-third of our twin-aisle fleet, with the remainder progressively undergoing similar upgrades over the next two years. The interior refit of our single-aisle fleet, serving domestic and short-haul international destinations, is already well underway and will be completed by mid-2025,” he said.

He said that the new aircraft will be supported by a brand-new 12-bay maintenance facility and training school in Bengaluru, a new 34-aircraft flight school in Amravati, besides the newly opened training facility in Gurugram, which, at 800,000 square feet, is South Asia’s largest.

Wilson further said that the new lounge for travellers in premium classes opened at Bengaluru will soon be followed by another in Delhi during 2025, and in other key cities in the time to come.

“Air India’s transformation covers every aspect of our business, and involves significant upgradation of systems, processes, infrastructure, equipment, and people,” he said.