Major experience change for flyers in 2026: Air India MD

NEW DELHI: Air India passengers will feel the “most significant change from experience perspective” in 2026, when the Maharaja enters his fifth year of return to founder Tata Group. Global supply chain issues have meant the airline continues to wait longer than originally expected for the planes ordered by it and also for revamping of its old fleet. AI MD & CEO Campbell Wilson, on Monday, said it should have got 28 aircraft from the 570-plane order placed in Feb 2022. However, it has got “zero” from that order and the fleet augmentation has taken place by leasing aircraft and taking planes that were ready for other airlines, which could not take their deliveries.“Our narrow body upgrade is almost complete. Due to aircraft induction delays, we decided to keep 17 legacy narrow body Airbus A320 family planes for a longer period and these will be upgraded. The wide bodies have been begun to be sent for retrofit and that work will be complete by the end of 2028,” Wilson said. While AI Group will get 26-30 aircraft next calendar year, a similar number will either be returned and sent for retrofit so the fleet size will remain virtually unchanged in 2026. The number of AI wide bodies will dip in the short term. As a result of slower induction and even slower retrofit, the airline has given pilots of all its aircraft excluding the Boeing 787 the option of “flexi contract” which allows them to choose shorter duty patterns. On some sectors, the cut in flights is proving to be commercially prudent. The fall in number of international travellers to the US, including from India, has led to AI – like most global airlines – seeing a temporary dip in demand.