Can the Tatas still save Air India from flushing away its reputation?

In February, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan joined a long line of passengers complaining about the quality of seats on Air India aircraft. In a post on X, Chouhan said the seat allocated to him by Air India was “broken”. The airline apologised to the minister and India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation is looking into the matter.   

There’s also the instance of an octogenarian Air India passenger who did not get a wheel chair and had to be hospitalised because of a fall.

Air India’s response to these incidents has been unbecoming. It “empathised” with the octogenarian passenger and said its investigation had found that the “said passenger travelling with family members had arrived at the departure terminal much later than the recommended two hours before departure”.  

As for the Chicago-Delhi flight, Air India said polythene bags, rags, and clothes flushed down the aircraft’s toilets had got stuck in the plumbing. “We take this opportunity to urge passengers to use lavatories only for the purposes that they are meant for,” the airline said in a statement.

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Instead of taking some of the blame for the shoddy maintenance work on the aircraft, Air India put the blame on its passengers. It is evident that the aircraft was not serviced properly in Chicago. Otherwise, why were eight of its 12 lavatories unserviceable soon after the aircraft took off.

Before a flight takes off, pilots are required to sign a minimum equipment list of all the equipment on board. The list includes lavatories and seats’ electrical systems, which are important for passenger comfort, particularly on an ultra-long route. Air India’s time table shows an aircraft is typically on the ground for four hours and 35 minutes, which should be enough time to check and ensure the lavatories are functional.

While all these recent incidents are damaging for Air India’s reputation, the Chicago-Delhi flight incident could persuade some global passengers to skip the airline. 

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How long can the Tata group-run Air India hide behind the excuse that the aircraft it inherited are old or blame supply chain problems and vendors who are no longer in business? These will not cut ice with Indian flyers, who are now very discerning.  

Instead, Air India should put its house in order. The Tatas knew what kind of fleet they were inheriting. Perhaps they should have made contingency plans for addressing issues that could surface from such aircraft. 

Even now, it can take newer aircraft on lease, something that IndiGo has done, so that passenger comfort is taken more seriously. Air India has already benefitted from sanctions on Russia and China, which ended up diverting aircraft deliveries meant for airlines of these two countries to join the Indian carrier’s fleet.