Air India turnaround could take up to a decade, owner Tata Sons says
Supply-chain bottlenecks, higher costs and a wider annual loss continue to weigh on the airline’s recovery.
A view of an Air India Airbus A350-900 in Farnborough, Britain, on Jul 24, 2024. (File photo: Reuters/Toby Melville)
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India’s Tata Sons said that Air India’s turnaround could take up to a decade, extending the timeline for the carrier’s turnaround, Chairman N Chandrasekaran said in the company’s annual report late on Monday (Jul 27).
The comment came as the country’s second-largest airline grapples with airspace closures, higher fuel costs from the conflict in West Asia, and the fallout from a deadly plane crash last year.
The airline’s turnaround will take time due to persistent supply-chain disruptions in key components, the need to overhaul legacy systems, culture, fleet, and efforts to build a larger technical and airline workforce, Chandrasekaran said.
The revised timeline marks a departure from Vihaan.AI, the five-year plan unveiled in September 2022 by then chief executive and managing director Campbell Wilson.
Wilson is set to step down as Air India’s chief executive officer on Sep 30 after serving his notice period. The company is yet to announce a successor.
Air India reported a wider net loss of 222.38 billion rupees (US$2.32 billion) for the financial year ended March 2026, compared with 108.59 billion rupees a year earlier.
India’s airline industry has rebounded strongly since the COVID-19 pandemic, but profitability remains under pressure from high costs, supply-chain constraints and fierce price competition.
Source: Reuters/co
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