Air India group to have 400 aircraft by 2027: CEO
Wilson clarified that not all 50 white tail Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are able to join the fleet by December as planned, and that they will be pushed up to June.
The chief executive officer of Air India Campbell Wilson said on Thursday that the company will have a fleet of 400 aircraft by 2027.
“Air India group will have a fleet size of 400 aircraft by 2027, we currently have 300 aircraft in our fleet,” Wilson, the airline’s chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) said.
He, however, noted that there is a delay in getting the white tail aircraft (that were originally manufactured for a particular airline and later taken by another airline) used by Air India Express due to a recent strike at Boeing headquarters in Seattle.
Wilson clarified that not all 50 white tail Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are able to join the fleet by December as planned, and that they will be pushed up to June.
“The Boeing strike lasted a while. I think the 737 production was also slow for an even longer period than that, which did have an impact on the construction of their aircraft…So the guidance is that it’s going to be six months plus delayed to narrow body deliveries,” he said.
He also said that Air India is aiming to improve passenger convenience for which retrofit of its legacy wide body aircraft will begin from early next year, but admitted the programme has been delayed due to global supply chain issues.
“The wide body aircraft are certainly produced in a different factory, but for all of the airframes, there are supply challenges…every airline is impacted by it,” he said. “We had hoped to start retrofitting 787s and 777s by now. Unfortunately, the global supply chains in some areas are still recovering and seats in particular are a challenge,” he added.
However, he assured that once retrofit starts in 2025, the airline will be doing three to four aircraft every month until all the 40 legacy wide-body aircraft are retrofitted.
Wilson also addressed the issue of rising passenger complaints on the flights to North America.
“With our limited capacity, as only our legacy aircraft capable of flying to the US, we would have missed the opportunity to expand to the US market if we had waited for new aircraft to arrive,” Wilson told media in a select press briefing in the airline’s headquarters in Gurugram.
He assured that the airline’s service and quality will improve with a better product (aircraft).