Air India: CCO of Airbus made a big statement on Tata and Air India, silent on A-350 aircraft deal

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) annual general meeting in Doha, Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer on Sunday said Air India wants to invest in new aircraft to gain international passenger market share. Is. He also said that the company is restructuring itself under the able leadership of the Tata Group. However, during this time he appeared to refrain from reacting to the A350 aircraft order.

 There is speculation about buying Airbus's A350 aircraft

After the meeting, when Christian Scherer was asked whether Air India had finalized the A350 aircraft order with Airbus? He declined to comment on this. His remarks came after reports last week that Tata Group-owned Air India has decided to buy its first batch of wide-body A350 aircraft from Airbus. It was also said in this report that by March 2023, the first aircraft would also be given to the airline. However, the report did not specify how many A-350 aircraft Air India would buy.

The company has not bought a single aircraft after 2006.

Air India has not bought a single aircraft since 2006. Then he placed an order to buy 111 aircraft. Of this, 68 aircraft were purchased by it from US-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing and 43 aircraft were ordered by European aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

The Tata group took over control of Air India on January 27, after making the biggest bid for Air India airline on October 8 last year. Since then, the company has been engaged in restructuring itself under the Tata Group.

The top management has changed after April

Since April, the airline's chairman N Chandrasekaran has replaced the airline's top management. They have brought in senior and mid-level executives who have worked in other Tata group companies such as Tata Steel and Vistara.

In this sequence, the company is looking to provide tax-version training to its senior pilots to operate the A-350 aircraft. He has also asked about the interest of senior pilots regarding this. Most of the aircraft owned by Air India belong to Boeing. For this reason, Air India pilots are trained to operate Boeing aircraft. Therefore, he has to undergo conversion training to operate Airbus's A-350 aircraft.

According to the Air India website, the airline has a total of 49 widebody aircraft in its fleet. These include 18 Boeing B777, 4 Boeing B747, and 27 Boeing B787. Apart from this, the airline also has 79 narrow-body aircraft in its fleet. Recently sources had said that Air India is procuring A350 aircraft and is likely to get its first A350 aircraft by March 2023. Airbus A-350 aircraft have a larger fuel tank, which makes them better suited for traveling long distances such as the Indo-US routes.

It is not easy for airlines to make profits in India

It is not easy for an airline to make a profit in India. This was stated by a senior IATA official at the 78th Annual General Meeting of the global airline's body held in Doha on Sunday. Along with this, he also said that many issues like fare cap and high tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) in India will have to be resolved.

In fact, after the meeting, Philip Goh, Asia Pacific's regional vice president of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), was asked whether Vistara and Air India should be merged by the Tata group. In response, he said these things. He said Vistara and Air India are full-service carriers. Vistara is in business for 5-6 years. He said that both the airline companies are still making losses. Making a profit in India is not easy. Talking about India, he said that the pricing should be left to the airlines.

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