Raghu Menon: Dealing with challenges at Air India

Outside Air India's headquarters in Mumbai are advertisements that talk of the "New Air India", of a fleet that is finally being modernised and of new in-flight service standards. And indeed there is much that is new as the carrier has been going through a major transformation over the past two years. It has been inducting new aircraft for the first time in well over a decade, has introduced new long-haul flights and in-flight products that are getting decent reviews, has been merging its operations with the former Indian Airlines, is modernising IT systems and is preparing to join the Star Alliance.
In reality it is all long overdue, as Air India had been stagnating for so long. With aggressive new privately owned players nipping at its heels the national carrier would have been doomed to fail unless sweeping change finally took place. Chairman and managing director Raghu Menon is the first to admit that the change process should have started long ago, but as he puts it: "It is better late than never."
"The words 'New Air India' do have meaning because it is only after a very long time that we are able to offer a product that can match any other airline," he says. "We would have been in trouble. The fleet delays were so long that perhaps the ­airline had given up hope of ever getting new aircraft. This should have been much earlier but we are very happy that this important decision was taken. It was the first big change and now there is so much more that is ­happening."
India's air transport market has itself seen massive change over the past five years, since Air Deccan was launched as the country's first low-cost carrier. Its success led to the launch of many more airlines, which in their fight for market share brought airfares down sharply, resulting in huge growth in demand. At the same time the government opened up air services agreements to allow foreign airlines to operate more services to India, and began modernising airport infrastructure at last.
26/11/08 Nicholas Ionides/Flight International

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Categories: NACIL Nov 2008