Crumbling seats, broken armrests, and dysfunctional seat-back entertainment screens on Air India’s aircraft often make the airline a subject of passenger ire but a massive repair and revamp exercise is afoot under which 40% of seats across its widebody and narrowbody planes have already been repaired since the Tata take-over last January.
The airline has also committed over $400 million for brand-new interiors for its entire legacy widebody fleet comprising 27 Boeing 787-8s and 13 Boeing 777 aircraft.
The retrofit will comprise new seats, carpeting, upholstery and even the introduction of onboard Wi-Fi that will replace pre-loaded entertainment content that is currently available to passengers as well as the addition of a Premium Economy cabin. Some of these changes are being reviewed by Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata, himself, who was present earlier this month to view seat options for the premium cabin product. The fund for refreshed interiors was announced last December, but the first revamped aircraft will enter service only mid-next year because of the long-drawn regulatory procedure.
“If we have released an aircraft from here when it returns we will find something not working. We try to ensure 100% serviceability for Business and First Class out of the base. That is the target, and we are more less able to achieve that.”
And though passengers often invoke the “Tata magic” and demand better services while flying with Air India, in the words of airline CEO Campbell Wilson there is “no magic bullet” to the airline’s legacy issues. In his first media interaction last October, he told reporters, “The unfortunate reality is that with so many aircraft, and so many issues to be addressed, it’s not a magic bullet problem. It is a progressive attack at every problem, so we get better and better.”
