Air India must tackle its inner demons first to regain public trust
A lot needs to happen before the Tata-run airline can hope to take a leading position in India’s aviation landscape.
June 2025 was a tough month for Air India. The horrifying plane crash in Ahmedabad made a massive dent in its public image at a time when the airline was building its public perception after the takeover by Tata Group.
Since the incident, even the tiniest transgression or issue has acquired mammoth proportions and attention because of the AI171 Ahmedabad crash and the unrelenting media gaze on the airline post it.
In July, a few weeks after the crash on June 12 that killed 260 people, two incidents involving Air India flights created more alarm among the flying public although neither led to any casualties. In one case, the aircraft veered off the runway on account of heavy rain while landing in Mumbai and was grounded for checks and in the other, the aircraft’s rear end caught fire after landing, grounding yet another aircraft of the airline’s fleet.
This was followed by a series of show cause notices issued by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which seemed to have intensified scrutiny post the accident across airlines but on Air India in particular. The show cause notices highlighted 29 violations over a one-year period (June 2024 to June 2025) and were disclosed voluntarily by the airline. DGCA also pointed out that repeated warnings had been issued in the past and the recurrence of such violations suggests a failure to establish effective control mechanisms.
A notice issued to the Director of Cabin Safety referred to four instances of non-compliance of cabin crew requirements in 2025 for ultra long-haul range flights. Another one to the Director of Flight Operations referred to weekly rest violations in the case of three specific crew members. Two such violations happened on June 24 last year and one on June 13 this year. “These violations reflect serious deficiencies in crew scheduling, operational planning and regulatory oversight within the flight operations function,” a DGCA notice pointed out. A further notice was issued to the Cabin Safety Training Manager of Air India for breach of regulatory requirements in case of flight operations – the crew operated flights with a lapsed competency card on numerous occasions.
Then, the Director (Training) of Air India was issued a show cause notice in connection with violations committed by 19 crew members. These highlighted lapses found in training norms and protocols.
By the end of July, a DGCA audit into level one (more serious) and level two findings across airlines found a total of 19 level one findings with Tata Group airlines in the last year, the only one with level one findings among the Indian carriers audited. The DGCA classifies audit findings into two levels; Level 1 involves direct safety hazards, including improper aircraft maintenance, documentation of expired parts, or serious crew training deficiencies, while Level 2 typically refers to procedural violations or administrative oversights.
It, therefore, comes as no surprise that passengers are beginning to question when and if Air India will get its act together, not just in terms of the service on offer but also the airline’s safety record, which has come under intense public gaze post the June crash. Towards the end of June, the Tata chairman decided to get more involved in the running of the airline, a development that was met with much relief by both industry sources and airline insiders.
The aviation industry, rival airline senior management and even those watching the events play out from a great distance in Europe and the US, have a host of (unsolicited) yet free advice although a large proportion of insiders (cynical and disheartened) argue that whatever the Tatas now do is “too little, too late”. However, many in the sector and outside believe that while Air India might have a mountain of troubles before it, there is nothing that cannot be surmounted, especially now that the Tata chairman himself has taken a deeper dive into the airline’s affairs. This below is an attempt to sift through the numerous suggestions and ideas and to pinpoint some of the key issues that need attention.
Proactive versus Reactive
Perhaps the biggest problem identified by outsiders and certain company insiders is the proclivity of top management members to brush uncomfortable issues under the carpet instead of tackling them head on. This has been evident in the airline’s handling of whistleblowers and anomalies in the airline’s operations, engineering, training and overall management, often pointed out by DGCA and other observers.
“Over the last three years, whenever someone is found lacking, they are removed as post holders and take the fall but the actual problem is left unaddressed and very little corrective action has been taken,” argues a former senior DGCA source. He says that the airline has taken reactive steps and has never been proactive in this aspect, something he firmly argues needs to change right away.
An airline insider said that post the accident, this matter is being looked into. “Those who are taking the decisions will increasingly be held directly accountable instead of letting someone else take the fall, when a problem is encountered,” he says, adding that there is a realisation within the airline that warnings issued over the last three years have consistently been overlooked right from the Tata top brass onwards. Whether this accident could have been prevented had such warnings been taken seriously remains a moot and uncomfortable point of discussion.
Another area that has taken a severe beating post the sale is the engineering division, which after the split from government owned AIESL (Air India Engineering Services Limited) is yet to find its feet. Sources say that the present Air India engineering set up lacks capability, infrastructure and the required skills set. “When the sale happened, the new engineering infrastructure and qualified engineers needed to have been put in place. This didn’t happen,” says an airline source, adding that while there is now a realisation, beefing up the airline’s engineering capabilities will require both time and resources and cannot be done in a jiffy.
Let some heads roll
Ever since June 13, there has been a growing clamour for the resignation of CEO Campbell Wilson and some of the team members he brought in. While many had been doubtful of the abilities of Campbell to pull off the massive transformation required at Air India, the accident totally eroded the faith people were willing to place in his abilities.
From September, some changes – and new faces – are expected at Air India, after Tata Sons chairman N Chandreasekharan took a deeper interest into the affairs post the crash. Sources said that partner Singapore Airlines (SIA) is expected to play a bigger role in the running of the airline although most expect the CEO to continue till his current term ends in 2027. New inductions are expected from SIA at a senior level, although the news has been greeted by scepticism by some senior management members, who argued that the airline already has a chain of command in place and this could end up creating more confusion by creating an alternate powercentre within.
Resentment within Air India has been building up internally against specific individuals holding certain key positions but this has reached its peak post the crash.
Overall, the bigger complaint is that the Tatas have brought in too many people who are unfamiliar with the key tenets of an aviation business – be it in finance, HR or commercial functions.
Bring crew on board
The single biggest failure identified by industry professionals, insiders, old Air India hands and many present ones is the failure to handle human resources. A paradigm shift needs to take place in the way management and crew engage, according to sources in the airline, where crew and commanders feel free to express their discontent and their views. “There is a quiet rebellion brewing within the different camps of crew and while the management has managed to get most of the union post holders on their side, mass discontent simmers just under the surface,” says a senior airline commander. He says that many differences in service terms between Vistara and Air India have led to bad blood developing and points to the recent extension of the retirement age to 65 for Air India captains as one of the niggling issues, which has only recently been tackled.
What has been particularly worrying is that the Tatas’ handling of the airline has managed to alienate even the senior commanders and airline loyalists who welcomed and were extremely happy about the private sector buyout as they were tired of the public sector way of management. In its bid to weed out the “old and cynical” Air India hands, the airline has ended up culling out valuable experience and in some cases lost the loyalty and faith of the more experienced crew. “The fact that the average age within the airline has dropped so sharply can be a double-edged sword,” says a rival airline top management member.
The TCS effect: Life is not one big app
Several airline insiders complain that the Tata takeover has led to every little interaction between the employee and the company, being conducted through an app, which is proving counter productive.
Labelled by naysayers as a “tech-obsession” and with support from sister firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the Tatas have introduced close to a dozen odd apps and portals internally for smoother processes to cater to a range of employee-related services — right from online training, foreign exchange cards, and payslip retrieval to medical and leave applications and employee support, which has been labelled by some as “digital red tape” and by some in more dramatic terms as “digital terrorism”. They argue that the airline has been “dehumanised” to an extent that is proving counter productive.
Management sources justify the use of digital systems and the numerous apps on the grounds that it removes the discretionary powers of individuals as a lot of the employee-related benefits and perks were earlier determined or settled based on who knew whom, currying favours and a sort of tacit understanding.
Organisational culture
To sum it up, there are no quick fixes and almost everyone, from the Tata chairman onwards, is aware of the fact that the airline needs a full cultural revolution, which takes time, commitment and a concerted effort to build. To win back the trust of the Indian flying public before it can dream of take-off stage in its transformational journey is the reality that faces the erstwhile national carrier.
Anjuli Bhargava writes on governance, infrastructure and the social sector. The views expressed are personal.
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