An Air India aircraft less than 15 years old was the first Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to crash. © Reuters
MUMBAI — The crash of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner on Thursday, the deadliest such incident globally in a decade with 241 confirmed fatalities, has set back the plans of one of India’s largest conglomerates to rebuild the carrier.
Prior to Tata Group’s takeover in 2022, the state-owned airline had for years been known for poor service and poorly maintained aircraft — issues it continues to wrestle with.
As part of the planned turnaround, Air India has announced plans to purchase 570 new aircraft, just under two-fifths of which are to come from Boeing and the rest from Airbus.
The rapid expansion is mirrored by the wider Indian aviation industry. Rival Indigo, which has just under two thirds of the Indian aviation market, has placed orders for more than 500 new aircraft from Airbus over the past two years.
India is the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market and saw total passenger traffic grow 15% in the fiscal year that ended in March 2024, according to the government. Airlines, both foreign and domestic, are betting the world’s fastest-growing major economy will soar even higher.
Thursday’s crash, which saw the aircraft smash into medical college accommodation in the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, less than a minute after takeoff, has shaken that sentiment.
Shares of Indigo fell over 3% on Thursday and closed a further 3.7% lower on Friday, while shares of smaller rival SpiceJet fell 3.5% on Thursday and slid a further 1.95% on Friday. Air India’s shares are not listed publicly.
India’s growing base of airline passengers expressed fear and confusion on social media in the wake of the crash. “Heart-wrenching visuals of the Air India aircraft taking off… and crashing within moments. A routine journey turned into a devastating tragedy,” an account named Korah Abraham posted on X.
The accident was the world’s first-ever crash of a Boeing Dreamliner. The airline has yet to determine the cause of the crash, although the aircraft’s digital video recorder has been recovered, local media reported.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the site of the crash on Friday morning. “Met those injured in the aftermath of the tragic plane crash in Ahmedabad, including the lone survivor [from the plane] and assured them that we are with them and their families in this tough time,” he posted on X.
“The entire nation is praying for their speedy recovery.”
Air India, which is about a quarter owned by Singapore Airlines, currently runs a mix of 128 Boeing and Airbus aircraft, according to its website. Twenty-seven of the airline’s planes are 10 to 15 years old, while 43 are more than 15 years old, the civil aviation ministry said in March.
The aircraft that crashed was under 15 years old, according to data from Flightradar24.
“It’s not a matter of an aging fleet,” said Mark D. Martin, founder of aviation advisory firm Martin Consulting.
“Everything will now be focused on how Air India is being managed,” he said. “The top three concerns are now operations, maintenance and management.”
In its years under state ownership, the airline accumulated massive debt. Tata Group took on 153 billion rupees ($1.79 billion at current exchange rates) out of Air India’s total debt of 615.62 billion rupees when it acquired the airline.
“It will be our endeavour to build a world-class airline that makes every Indian proud,” Tata Group Chairman N. Chandrasekaran said in a statement at the time.
The crash has highlighted long-standing concerns around regulations and conditions in the domestic aviation industry, Martin said, including the presence of people and buildings close to airports. Thursday’s crash killed at least 24 people on the ground, including students at the medical college, local media reported.
Martin also highlighted the need for increased public reporting of metrics like “technical dispatch reliability” — the ratio of delayed flights from technical issues versus the total number of flights — to improve compliance and passenger awareness.
As of February, about 117 aircraft of various airlines were grounded due to technical issues, making up 13% to 15% of the total industry fleet, credit rating agency ICRA said in a report in March.
In a further blow to Air India, on Friday one of its flights, from Thailand’s Phuket to India’s capital New Delhi, was forced to make an emergency landing after receiving a bomb threat.
Thursday’s crash was not Air India’s first brush with disaster. While under government ownership, an aircraft run by the airline’s low-cost unit, Air India Express, overshot a runway in 2010, killing over 150, while another aircraft run by the unit veered off a runway in 2020, killing over 20.
U.S. based Boeing, meanwhile, has faced regulatory and investor heat over the past few years for multiple accidents, including fatal crashes of 737 Max aircraft in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed hundreds.
The article appeared in the asia.nikkei