Air India may restore flights as West Asia situation improves: CEO

Air India may restore some of the flights it had cut because of the West Asia conflict if the security situation remains stable, allowing more airspace to reopen and fuel prices to decline significantly, its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Campbell Wilson told employees on Friday.

 

"Most significantly for us though, the West Asia conflict has abated and, though there's no guarantee it won't re-escalate, the more stable environment has allowed more airspace to become available and fuel prices to significantly moderate," he stated in an internal message to employees.

 

"Should this trend continue, we may be able to wind back some of the schedule reductions we'd taken in recent months — and I'm sure you all join me in hoping for this sooner rather than later," he mentioned.

   

Wilson was referring to the network rationalisation Air India undertook because of the West Asia conflict, which started on February 28 when Israel and the US attacked Iran.

 

Due to this conflict, a significant portion of airspace over West Asia was closed, and fuel prices had shot up. Therefore, Air India — instead of taking longer routes — suspended flights on three international routes and reduced frequencies on 26 others, cutting around 250 international flights a week through August.

 

Those reductions followed an earlier round of about 90 weekly flight cuts, taking the total reduction to roughly 340 international flights a week.

 

The CEO on Friday also outlined progress on the airline's network expansion plans. Wilson said Air India's new non-stop Mumbai-Tokyo Haneda service had begun operations last week and complements the airline's daily Delhi-Haneda flights.

 

At Air India Express, he said the carrier would become the first airline to operate an international passenger flight from Navi Mumbai International Airport, with direct Abu Dhabi services starting next month. In August, the low-cost airline will also launch the first direct flights from Guwahati to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, while it has recently started direct Pune-Amritsar services.

 

Wilson also talked about the airline's efforts to strengthen its overseas commercial presence. Air India recently organised its first trade engagement programme in Hanoi for travel partners and agents, while similar events were held in Germany and France. The airline also hosted German travel agents and tour operators in Delhi to showcase its upgraded products and network.

 

Among operational milestones, Wilson said customer response to the airline's retrofitted Boeing 787 aircraft had been "extremely heartening". Customer Net Promoter Score (NPS) on the two refurbished aircraft improved by more than 70 points, rising from minus 31 to plus 43 compared with non-retrofitted aircraft. Customer satisfaction scores for cabin comfort, in-flight entertainment and meals also improved from about 2.7 out of five to 4.1.

 

Another Boeing 787 is being sent for retrofit, while around eight more new or retrofitted wide-body aircraft, including a new Boeing 787-9 arriving this weekend, are expected to enter service this year.

 

The airline also recorded its highest-ever on-time performance in June, with overall OTP reaching 86 per cent and domestic OTP touching 90 per cent.

 

"Put simply, our operation is becoming more resilient, and our customers are feeling the benefit," Wilson said.

 

Air India also launched its first "Easy Connect" service from Varanasi, allowing international passengers to complete check-in, baggage drop and immigration at their origin airport before connecting through Delhi. Wilson said the programme would gradually be expanded to more Tier-II and Tier-III cities to strengthen the airline's hub-and-spoke network.

 

On the commercial front, Air India entered into partnerships with Booking.com to enable customers to book flights and hotels in a single transaction through the airline's website and mobile application, and with MakeMyTrip to showcase its upgraded cabins, fleet and network.