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<\/p>\nManagement and leadership changes, in addition to synchronising operations between all its airlines, are showing visible results for Air India.<\/p>\n
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Data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) show that there has been a marked improvement in key operational parameters of Air India after the Tata group took complete control of the national airline in January.<\/p>\n
One of the most dramatic improvements has been noticed in Air India’s passenger load factor (PLF) – a crucial metric of capacity utilisation of an airline’s fleet that shows how many seats it has been able to fill on every flight.<\/p>\n
From February to June, Air India has clocked an impressive 80 per cent load factor on its domestic services.<\/p>\n
During the same period last year, when it was under government control, its domestic PLF stood at 60 per cent.<\/p>\n
In the whole of 2021, it managed a PLF of 68 per cent.<\/p>\n
This in many ways is a return to its 2019 PLF levels.<\/p>\n
And it still has some way to go to catch up with its competitors like IndiGo, SpiceJet, and GoFirst, which utilise their capacity better than the Tata-owned airline.<\/p>\n
A similar turnaround in operational efficiency is discernable in its international operations.<\/p>\n
After Tatas’ takeover in January, the PLF on its international operations rose to 80 per cent, compared with 63 per cent in the corresponding period last year.<\/p>\n
However, Air India hasn’t been able to translate that into greater market share.<\/p>\n
In June, its domestic market share stood at 7.5 per cent, considerably lower than the 10 per cent it had inherited in January.<\/p>\n
While market leader IndiGo has managed to retain its share at 56 per cent, Vistara, another Tata-owned airline, has eaten into Air India’s share.<\/p>\n
Vistara commanded a nine per cent market share in June, up from 7.5 per cent in January.<\/p>\n
AirAsia India, the third airline owned by the Tata group, also managed to increase its market share during this period.<\/p>\n
Vistara and AirAsia India now have a domestic market share greater than the much larger Air India domestically.<\/p>\n
Air India, which had the highest number of passenger complaints, has also managed to resolve issues like delays, and denial of boarding, among others, that had left flyers fuming.<\/p>\n
In June, it halved its complaints per 10,000 passengers to just two, compared with the same month last year.<\/p>\n
Within a couple of months of taking over the national airline, the Tata group had effected management changes led by the appointment of Tata Sons vice-president Nipun Aggarwal as the airline’s chief commercial officer.<\/p>\n
A couple of other senior management personnel from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tata Steel were also brought into key roles.<\/p>\n
It also retained some “old hands” appointed by the government.<\/p>\n
One of them is Captain RS Sandhu, the airline’s chief of operations.<\/p>\n
In June, Campbell Wilson, former CEO of Singapore International Airlines (SIA) low-cost carrier Scoot, was onboarded as Air India’s chief executive officer after the requisite clearances were given by the Union home ministry for his appointment.<\/p>\n