Management installed by the Tata Group had spent three years struggling to undo a reputation for shoddy operations earned during decades of state ownership.
This week’s horrifying plane crash in Ahmedabad, India, happened at a critical juncture in the history of Air India, one of the world’s oldest airlines and the country’s flagship.
In 2022, India privatized the carrier after almost 70 years of state control. The government had tried for years to find someone to take Air India off its hands. It finally sold it to the Tata Group, India’s most prestigious conglomerate, for the relatively low price of $350 million.
The idea was that the private sector would do better. Air India’s reputation was on a steady decline, with a fleet notorious for late takeoffs, broken seats and spotty service. It was a feat for the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to find any buyer at all.
The new owners have poured a lot of money into turning things around. The Tata Group hired Campbell Wilson, a New Zealander who started a low-cost carrier in Singapore, to reform management from the top. To renew the fleet, Air India placed record-breaking orders for 570 new aircraft, a mix of planes by Boeing and its European rival, Airbus.
With investigations into the cause of the crash on Thursday just getting underway, it was unclear whether Air India itself will face any blame. The death toll, 261 passengers and staff as well as dozens on the ground, made the crash one of the world’s worst in years. The type of airplane involved, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, had been flying safely around the world for years, and the pilot had logged more than 8,000 flight hours.