Air India is now halfway through its ambitious transformation program, and we find out how it's really going. The 5-year roadmap named Vihaan.AI, meaning 'new dawn' in Sanskrit, is all about reinventing the airline into a modern airline that India can be proud of, and sparking what they hope will be a new golden era.
Two key stages, taxi and takeoff, are already in the rear view. Now Air India has entered the climb phase. This has been a requested video by a lot of you guys to clear up the refresh rather than refurbishment phase of Air India redeveloping itself under its new owners.
Okay, let's be honest. You don't need to dig deep to understand why this reboot is so necessary. A quick scroll online reveals wave after wave of passenger complaints. Outdated planes, long delays, spotty service. It's not exactly the image of a flag carrier.
In CEO Campbell Wilson's own words, Air India had spent the last four decades in terminal decline.
Wilson, who came in from Singapore Airlines and Scoot, paints a brutally honest picture of the past. But it wasn't always this way. In its early years, Air India was a trailblazer.
Founded in 1932 by JRD Tata, a pioneer aviator and scion of the Tata industrial dynasty. Originally known as Tata Airlines, it was nationalized in 1953 and renamed Air India. In 1962, it proudly became the first airline in the world to operate an all-jet fleet. JRD Tata stayed on as chairman until 1977.
Air India was his passion project, and under his leadership, it thrived. In the 1970s, it introduced its iconic Boeing 747 fleet, dubbed 'your palace in the sky.' Complete with lavish interiors, Indian-inspired motifs, and even a first-class cocktail lounge, the Maharaja Room, on the upper deck. It was peak glamour.
But then came turbulence. The 1990s and early 2000s marked the airline's decline into mediocrity, plagued by inefficiency and missed opportunities. While India's economy surged, Air India lagged behind, losing ground to Gulf carriers like Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways.
As Wilson puts it, aviation had been seen as the preserve of the rich, and so it was a luxury to be taxed. The result: the airline descended into a little bit of an embarrassment. He doesn't hold back.
The old Air India didn't really have job descriptions, didn't have performance management, didn't have rewards for doing well or consequences for not doing well. Promotion was based on tenure, not talent. The systems were archaic, if they even existed. Most of the time, it was manual. There was no culture of planning in advance; if anything, it was even reactionary.
In fact, there was even a perverse incentive to not plan and react, because if you could fix the crisis, you could claim credit for fixing a crisis. And so that's just the absolute antithesis of what a good airline should be.
By the mid-2000s and teens, it was clear something had to give. The government's stance shifted. Aviation was now seen as a strategic enabler of economic and social growth. Privatization became the path forward.
Initially, the government tried to sell a majority stake while holding on to some ownership. But when that didn't work, they sold the whole airline outright. In 2022, Tata Sons reacquired Air India in a historic homecoming, with Singapore Airlines coming on board too, now holding just over 25% of the revamped airline. Since then, Wilson and his team have been sprinting toward transformation.
Still, there's plenty of skepticism. People are still hesitant to fly with them, likely influenced by viral clips of onboard chaos. That said, half the fleet now boasts upgraded cabins, mostly on shorter routes for now. There's a slick new app and website, fresh catering contracts, and noticeable service improvements. Given that privatization only happened in 2022, the pace of change has been pretty impressive.
But explaining this transformation to the wider world — that's been tough. You haven't seen a splashy global ad campaign yet. That's deliberate. In fact, this marks the first time Air India has brought in UK and US media to tour its Delhi hub and try the new product. For now, it's all about setting realistic expectations.
