Tata Group-owned aircraft carrier Air India’s Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson, while talking about delays in aircraft maker Boeing’s pipeline, said that there is a delay in getting all “50 white-tail aircraft,” which were expected to join the fleet early December this year, PTI reported on Thursday, November 28.
“Fifty 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 told the news agency, talking about the delays and labour strike issues at American aircraft maker Boeing.
White-tail aircraft are planes which are built without any pre-existing customer.
Out of the 50 white-tail Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, at least 35 have joined the company’s fleet and are currently operated by Air India’s low-cost flight arm, Air India Express.
“It is not clear for how long the impact will be. Six months is reasonable for some aircraft…,” Wilson was quoted as saying in the report.
Air India has merged its operations with Vistara under AIX Connect. The company also operates Air India Express under this wing.
Air India’s Growth
The Tata-owned airline is set to see most of its growth from the domestic and short-haul international operation segment in 2025 as more narrow-body planes join the fleet, according to the Air India chief executive.
“We are also taking the aircraft for the refit programme. So, the number of wide-body aircraft available will shrink a little bit,” said Wilson.
The airline’s legacy wide-body aircraft will be going to get retrofitted early next year, he said.
“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…” said Wilson. “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,” he said.
The company is on its five-year transformational journey and aims to have a 400-aircraft fleet by 2027. At this moment, Air India Group has a total of 300 aircraft, including that of Air India Express, as per the report.
In a media briefing on Thursday, Wilson also said that the airline has a domestic market share of nearly 29 per cent and 55 per cent in metro-to-metro routes. On top 120 domestic routes, the market share is about 40 per cent.
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