NEW DELHI - At Air India, changes over the past 13 months have ranged from carpets and cushions being replaced in its fleet of ageing aircraft, many grounded for months, to placing a record US$70 billion (S$93.8 billion) order for 470 planes from Airbus and Boeing.

And yet the airline, which was bought by the Tata Group, needs to keep up this blistering pace of change if it wants to dominate Indian aviation and create a strong international network, said experts.

Air India, which in its heyday defined Indian air travel, was officially handed over last January by the government to the Tata Group, a salt-to-software conglomerate with ambitious aviation interests.

“This (overhaul) has elements of a start-up, as well as a transformation,” Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson, who is also the founding CEO of Scoot, told The Straits Times.

“We carry 100,000 people a day. So it is a start-up and transformation – 100,000 people a day, growth aspirations and intense interest from not just India but also the diaspora. And it’s not just transformation, but also two concurrent integrations.”

Low-cost carriers Air India Express and AIX Connect, formerly AirAsia India, are being merged while the second merger is of full-service carrier Vistara, which it runs in partnership with Singapore Airlines (SIA), with Air India.

An SIA spokesman said the two companies “aim to complete the merger by March 2024, subject to regulatory approval”.

Mr Wilson noted that the influence of SIA, which will have a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India, was already present, albeit indirectly for now.

“We have modelled a lot of Air India’s transformation on a system and practices that Vistara has and Vistara itself has modelled a lot of its system and practices on its shareholder SIA. So there is a warm relationship,” he said.

The SIA spokesman said Air India would benefit from Vistara’s “operational capabilities, customer base, and a strong focus on customer service”.

The expansion of Air India is also an opportunity for SIA to increase its presence in a growing market.

India is the world’s third-largest and the fastest-growing aviation market on the back of a growing middle class and rising disposable incomes. Indian carriers are likely to place orders for 1,500 to 1,700 planes in the next one to two years, according to aviation consultancy Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.

Air India had announced last year a five-year plan called “Vihaan.AI”, which in Sanskrit means the dawn of a new era, to increase market share from 8 per cent to 30 per cent in five years, through expansion, improving customer service, on time performance and investing in skilling people.  

It currently has 113 planes, out of which 100 are in service, with plans to triple its aircraft in the coming years, said its CEO.

The airlines have added 16 new destinations, increased frequency of flights, hired 1,900 cabin crew and 285 pilots since April, among the multiple changes.

Air India will focus on long-haul, non-stop flights to North America, its CEO said, adding that Europe and Australasia will also be focus areas.

Initially known as Tata Airlines, Air India was set up in 1932 by former Tata Group chairman J. R. D. Tata, known as the father of Indian aviation and the country’s first licensed pilot.

In 1953, Air India was nationalised, with the government taking a majority stake.

After enjoying a monopoly for decades, its downfall started in the nineties on the back of mismanagement and wasteful expenditure. The loss-making airline saw many of its aircraft grounded amid financial trouble.

The challenges continue.

There have been complaints about poor service, including by a celebrity chef who tweeted about an unappetising on-flight meal.

Air India was also accused of mishandling a situation in which an intoxicated man, 34, allegedly urinated on a 72-year-old woman in business class. The airline was accused of not following the process of handling unruly passengers.

Mr Wilson said the company is looking into these complaints.  

“Clearly we don’t like to disappoint people. We are putting in a lot of investment in terms of punctuality, menus, products, seat refurbishments, new aircraft and new systems to train crew, but these things take time... This is not something we can snap our fingers and do overnight.”  

Analysts said that Tata, a group that commands respect in India, has its job cut out and would need to continue with aggressive expansion plans even as the government seeks to make India an aviation hub.

“The challenges are to first produce a product that is as good as the best in the market, set up operations between different cities and expand the network,” said Mr Jitender Bhargava, former executive director of Air India and author of The Descent Of Air India.

“We all know Air India under the government was not doing well on any parameter, it made it all the more challenging for anyone acquiring it,” he added.

“On the employee front, Air India needs an overhaul. You need new training and manpower. It’s no good having planes if you don’t have service capability,” said Mr Rishi Sahai at Cogence Advisors, a finance firm.

“The merger will also be a challenge in terms of employers. There is a huge hierarchical structure. Vistara is an efficient airline with a high degree of customer satisfaction versus Air India, which was under government control with employees used to a different work culture.” 

Mr Rajan Mehra, Club One Air’s CEO and former India head of Qatar Airways, said: “The largest challenge is removing the impression that people have of the airlines as being not on time and having below-par service.”

Air India also faces competition from other airlines, including Indigo, the country’s largest airline domestically, and Gulf carriers such as Qatar Airways, which have filled the long-haul void left by Air India.