India has, in some respect, not been able to control its own destiny due to not having a healthy domestic airline industry, according to Air India chief Campbell Wilson. “As a consequence of not having a healthy domestic airline industry, India has, in some respects is, not able to control its own destiny. Some foreign airlines coming into India have reaped the benefits of the growing Indian market as opposed to the Indian airlines,” Wilson said. Wilson, who is piloting Air India’s massive expansion plans in terms of the fleet and routes, also said that IndiGo succeeding well and Tata Airlines coming together provides a good competitor to the strength of IndiGo.
“It should hopefully allow for a more sustainable, ideally profitable market that will allow airlines to invest in new products, expand the network and also lead India to assume its place on the world aviation stage…,” he said. Tata Group took over Air India and Air India Express from the government in January last year. “We continue to ensure that we invest in aircraft, products, people and systems. We will have a significantly sized, professionally run, expansion-oriented high-quality airline,” Wilson said. He also said that Air India is investing $70 billion at the list price for 470 new aircraft, and that is with the explicit purpose of providing more services, especially international connectivity.