Air India's transformation 5-10 year journey; significant progress made: Tata Sons Chairman

New Delhi, Air India's transformation journey must be seen as a five- to ten-year journey considering the years-long supply chain disruptions in key components, the need to overhaul the legacy systems, culture, fleet and creation of a large cadre of airline professionals, according to Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran.

While mentioning that significant progress has been made in the transformation journey, he said every great airline in history was built over decades, not quarters.

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Chandrasekaran also said the airline faced three external headwinds in the 2025-26 financial year.

"Air space closures; West Asia conflict-driven fuel price hikes and foreign exchange fluctuations; and the crash of AI171 made it the most challenging year for Air India. At every stage, Air India's teams responded with resilience and adaptability," he said in his letter in the Tata Sons Annual Report for 2025-26.

Tata Sons took control of loss-making Air India from the government in January 2022 and has embarked on an ambitious transformation plan.

Singapore Airlines holds a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India Group.

In a reflection of the confidence about the future, Chandrasekaran said that in 2047, the centennial of Indian independence, "a young Indian will board an Air India plane, built with Indian components, chips fabricated on Indian soil, protected by defence systems built in India".

That is the point of institution-building. When it succeeds, it becomes the ordinary infrastructure of national life, he said.

Chandrasekaran, who is the Chairman of Air India, said a nation of 1.4 billion people, with one of the world's fastest-growing economies, deserves a world-class flag carrier.

"Rebuilding Air India is a long journey: fleet renewal, training, service transformation, network expansion. Every great airline in history was built over decades, not quarters," he said.

According to him, the airline's narrow-body aircraft for domestic routes have been refurbished and have been receiving strong positive customer feedback.

The wide-body aircraft are expected to complete refurbishment by end of FY28, he said and added that the airline's NPS (Net Promoter Scores) have improved from -35 in FY23 to +42 in June 2026.

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NPS is an indicator of customer satisfaction. "Given where it began, Air India's transformation must be seen as a five- to ten-year journey, considering the years-long supply chain disruptions in key components, the need to overhaul legacy systems, culture and fleet, and the creation of a large cadre of technical and airline professionals.

"Our commitment is to give India a carrier that connects it to the world with pride, creates hundreds of thousands of jobs across aviation, tourism and logistics, and makes India a global aviation hub rather than a market others fly through," Chandrasekaran said.

In 2025-26 fiscal, Air India's revenue declined to Rs 71,870 crore from Rs 78,636 crore in the previous financial year, as per the annual report.

Air India's loss after taxation stood at Rs 15,367.75 crore while that of Air India Express was at Rs 6,767.29 crore in the last financial year.

Air India Group comprises Air India and Air India Express.

The report also mentioned that the transformation of Air India is a commitment to give India a carrier that connects it to the world, creates large number of jobs across aviation, tourism and logistics and makes India a global aviation hub.