The next few months will be decisive; AI leadership must decide whether it truly intends to prioritise safety or continue chasing market share at any cost
The Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, which killed more than 270 people, including 241 passengers, has not only exposed fatal cracks in the airline’s operational safety but also eroded the Tata Group’s grand ambition to reinvent it as a world-class carrier.
What was billed as the renaissance of India’s flagship airline has turned into a damning indictment of misplaced priorities, poor maintenance culture, and a service record mired in mediocrity.
The rot runs deep
The crash of Flight AI171 on June 12 has thrown into sharp relief what whistleblowers and disillusioned passengers had been warning all along: that the rot runs deeper than branding exercises and aircraft orders.
More damning, however, are the growing concerns that Air India’s maintenance protocols were either insufficient or inconsistently applied.
The Air India app may have been redesigned, and cabin crew retrained and dressed in new uniforms designed by Manish Malhotra, but the core experience remains alarmingly inconsistent.
Former pilots have alleged that cost-cutting and pressure to speed up market entry have outpaced safety investments.
“We’ve raised these issues before,” said a retired Air India commander who refused to be named. “This was a disaster waiting to happen.”
Also read: Ahmedabad crash victim’s sister demands accountability, transparency
Reduced liability
When Tata Sons took over Air India in 2022, it promised nothing short of an aviation revival. The group’s executives spoke of erasing decades of bureaucratic inefficiency and restoring pride to a brand once seen as the jewel of Indian skies.
But three years on, the mask of transformation has slipped.
The government had written off debt, waived several conditions regarding the retention of existing employees, and handed over the airline to Tata Sons, which came with several existing assets.
The Centre wrote off over Rs 61,000 crore of Air India’s legacy debt and other liabilities before transferring the airline to the Tata Group. Of Air India’s total debt of Rs 61,562 crore on August 31, 2021, the Tata Group took over Rs 15,300 crore, while the remaining Rs 46,000 crore (approx.) was transferred to a special-purpose vehicle called AIAHL for government settlement.
Also read | Vistara’s legacy faces turbulent integration as it joins Air India’s wings
This means the government effectively cleared the bulk of the airline’s debt, allowing Tata to acquire Air India with a significantly reduced liability. While it is true that without removing a large part of the debt, no airline would have been keen on acquiring Air India, it also indicates that the new owners had a relatively clean balance sheet to work with.
Assets that came along
Among the many assets the airline brought along were over 140 aircraft, including wide-body and narrow-body planes, priceless international slots totalling around 900, including those at London’s Heathrow Airport, and 4,400 domestic landing and parking slots.
The other core assets included aircraft hangars and, of course, a 100 per cent stake in Air India Express and a 50 per cent stake in Air India SATS Airports Services Ltd, which provides cargo and ground handling services at major Indian airports.
Along with Singapore Airlines, Tata Sons ran a premium services carrier, Vistara, which was integrated into Air India.
Also read: Air India crash puts spotlight back on poor infrastructure at airports
Avoidable errors
What the Air India owners had to do was focus on efficiency one step at a time. But that has been found wanting. There has been a litany of avoidable errors and passenger grievances under Tata’s watch. Air India’s reputation is on a free fall, with issues ranging from emergency landings and in-flight system failures to customer service scandals.
For an airline with ambitions of becoming a global player, the burden of proof is now immense. It must not only fix what went wrong but convincingly demonstrate that such lapses will not recur.
In 2024 alone, the airline’s operations were involved in several incidents. A Delhi-San Francisco flight was stranded for days in Russia after an engine failure, and a Chicago-Delhi flight had to return midway when nearly all the lavatories stopped functioning.
Passengers have consistently complained of poor hygiene, broken seats, malfunctioning entertainment systems, and indifferent crew. Photos of stained upholstery and faulty equipment regularly surface online, undermining Tata’s well-funded campaign to portray the airline as a reformed entity.
The Air India app may have been redesigned, and cabin crew retrained and dressed in new uniforms designed by Manish Malhotra, but the core experience remains alarmingly inconsistent.
Also read | Understaffed, overworked: India's looming air traffic control crisis
Litany of complaints
In March 2025, an 85-year-old passenger in Toronto was left unattended in a wheelchair by Air India ground staff. Her family, outraged, accused the airline of gross negligence. Just weeks before the crash, a senior Indian politician went public about being assigned a broken seat on a domestic leg. These are not isolated grievances; they form a pattern of systemic disregard for the customer.
More troubling are the internal fissures that have come to light. The Indian Pilots’ Guild, in multiple letters to management, flagged fatigue issues and intimidation tactics used against pilots who called in sick. “This culture of coercion compromises safety,” one letter read.
Maintenance staff, too, have privately echoed similar concerns. A persistent shortage of spare parts, overworked technicians, and poor coordination between operations and engineering departments have made aircraft turnaround a game of Russian roulette, according to insiders.
Also read: Ahmedabad crash: System failure or pilot error? Capt Ranganathan decodes
Renewed scrutiny
The consequences of this approach are now grimly visible. The crash has prompted renewed scrutiny of Tata Group’s aggressive expansion strategy.
The Vihaan.AI plan, touted as a blueprint for Air India’s rebirth, focused on global reach and modernised fleet procurement, including the world’s most significant aircraft order from Boeing and Airbus. But ambition without foundational reform is a recipe for crisis.
“New planes can’t fix an old culture,” said a former executive at the DGCA. “You need deep institutional change, not just new jets and uniforms.”
Indian passengers have an emotional connect with Air India and have continued to use its services despite the relentless monotony of complaints. However, their patience must be running thin, and they may even start looking at alternatives.
For an airline with ambitions of becoming a global player, the burden of proof is now immense. It must not only fix what went wrong but convincingly demonstrate that such lapses will not recur.
Internal voices
Even within the Tata Group, voices are reportedly growing louder over the poor and inefficient operations.
Passengers have consistently complained of poor hygiene, broken seats, malfunctioning entertainment systems, and indifferent crew. Photos of stained upholstery and faulty equipment undermine Tata’s well-funded campaign to portray the airline as a reformed entity.
The Boeing Dreamliner that went down was a relatively new addition to the fleet. That fact alone has intensified scrutiny.
If a modern aircraft on an international route can experience such a catastrophic failure within seconds of take-off, the implications are chilling. Preliminary findings suggest possible mechanical failure involving the flaps and thrust control system.
Also read: Ahmedabad crash puts Boeing under lens again over recurring safety issues
Brand fallout?
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered urgent inspections of Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet, specifically those powered by General Electric's (GE) GEnx engines. One-time “additional maintenance actions” were mandated, including in-depth flight control checks and power assurance tests. That such protocols had not been routine speaks volumes about the gaps in oversight.
The crash has resulted in India’s most significant aviation insurance claim, exceeding Rs 1,000 crore. Singapore Airlines, which holds a stake in the merged Air India-Vistara entity, has maintained a studied silence, but insiders say there is mounting concern about the brand fallout.
Also read | Employee unrest clouds Tata Sons' ambitious Vistara-Air India merger
Prioritising safety
The next few months will be decisive. Regulators are expected to intensify audits. Unions will increase pressure on management to implement significant changes and greater accountability. And Air India’s leadership must decide whether it truly intends to prioritise safety or continue chasing market share at any cost.
What happened in Ahmedabad should be treated as more than a tragedy; it is a reckoning. If Tata Sons is serious about building a world-class airline, it must begin making changes at the top, dismantle all that no longer works and restore the most essential element of flight: trust.
