New Air India CEO aims better punctuality to keep market share

With new players in the market like Akasa Air and Jet Airways aiming to relaunch operations in the near future, the market share of existing dominants like Indigo and Air India is likely to take a hit. In his first interview since taking charge as CEO of Air India, Campbell Wilson said that the Tata-owned airline is committed to trimming losses which were rising despite growth in revenue.

Currently, according to a JM Financial report, Indigo has over 50 percent passenger share while Tata Group (Air India, Vistara and Air Asia) have close to 25 percent.

One of the key focus areas for Air India will be improving its punctuality record which hasn't been something to write home about. Air India's on-time performance at four metro airports -- Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai -- was just 83.1 per cent in June, lower than IndiGo, Vistara and AirAsia India, according to data from aviation regulator DGCA.

Wilson is well aware of this and in a company communique had stated in July that, "IOCC ( integrated operations control centre) is the nerve centre of an airline. It not only manages our network of flights 24X7, 365 days of the year, but it also plays a crucial role in driving our OTP (on-time performance)."

"As we get more punctual and therefore more reliable, we can charge people a fare that commensurates with the product quality they are getting,” he told CNBC-TV18 in the interview.

The airline is also renegotiating contracts to trim down its operating expenditures.

While talking about integration, Wilson acknowledged that there is a conversation happening between the shareholders.

"The statement was very clear that it's at the exploratory stage and no definitive decisions have been made. So we will have to see what happens after that,” he said