DELHI/MUMBAI: Air India worldwide passengers will quickly get the much-awaited cabin product because the back-in-Tata- fold airline will induct six wide-body A350 plane into its fleet this yr, mentioned Campbell Wilson, Air India CEO and MD.
At $70 billion, AI for the primary time confirmed the checklist worth of its report order for 470 plane which are a mixture of Airbus and Boeing extensive and slender our bodies. Five ex-Delta Boeing 777s have already begun flying on North America routes.

The first of the 40 legacy wide-body plane which are being refurbished will be a part of the fleet in mid-2024.
“Air India has embarked on probably the greatest transformation in aviation history” Wil- son mentioned, calling the preliminary months publish the privatization “the taxiing phase”.
On Monday, Wilson spoke to the media for the primary time after the Tatas positioned a report agency order for 470 plane together with an possibility for 370 extra. “We will finance this order through several modes. There will be equity, sale and lease back and other financing options,” he mentioned. While the merger with Vis- tara is pending regulatory approval, the combination of Air India Express and AirAsia In- dia is underway, he mentioned.

“The intention is to end up with one full service airline and one low-cost airline in the group. The full service airline will be an amalgam of Air India and Vistara. But we expect many of the practices and systems to be those of Vistara. Being a young- er, private airline, it has been able to imbibe the learnings that it brings from its other shareholders.”
The shareholder he referred to is Singapore Airlines (SIA). Ten-year-old Vistara is a 51:49 three way partnership between Tata Group and SIA. Last yr, SIA and Tata Group introduced a merger between Air India and Vistara with SIA holding 25.1% of the merged entity.
Speaking about fleet and improved passenger cabin, he mentioned that since 2022, over 20 planes that had been grounded for years are again within the air and capability has elevated by 78%.
“We are hiring 500 cabin crew every month and have a strong pipeline of personnel. A training academy is in the works that will train personnel not just for AI but other airlines, too,” Wilson mentioned. AI can even rent expat cre8w members to expedite development.
Six twin aisle A350s have been prepared for Aeroflot however after the conflict on Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, Airbus can’t ship them to the airline. These planes will now come to Air India this yr within the configuration as Aeroflot had ordered them — 28 enterprise, 24 consolation (premium financial system) and 264 financial system seats. Due to produce chain points, AI is not going to be altering this structure of passenger lodging (LOPA) as that might delay their induction.
And cabin refurbishment of the present wide-body plane shall be accomplished as per a part of the $400 million programme by subsequent yr.