Air India aims 30% international market share in 5 years, says CEO

New Delhi: Air India aims to have a 30 per cent share in domestic and international markets in the next five years as the airline expands services and fleet, its chief Campbell Wilson said on Tuesday.

Describing that the revival of Air India is not a "T20 match" but a "Test match", Wilson said that firstly, the airline wants to restore its reputation and "we have evidence to indicate that the progress is being made".

The loss-making carrier, which was taken over by Tata group in January, has put in place the revival plan 'Vihaan.AI'. Amid reports about broken seats and service issues in some wide-body planes, the Air India chief said it was hopeful of "getting all business class seats in wide body aircraft in good working order by the end of this month and all the economy class seats by early next year.

Wilson, who is the MD and CEO, told reporters here that Air India aims to have 30 per cent share in domestic and international markets in the next five years.

Currently, the airline has a domestic market share of 10 per cent and an international market share of 12 per cent.

On when the airline's financial turnaround is expected, Wilson said it is going to be a culmination of many things.

As part of revival, Air India is working on getting grounded aircraft back in the air, procuring spares, refurbishing carpets and cushions, among other initiatives in the past nine months.

According to Wilson, many wide-body planes have already been refreshed and it has also renegotiated many contracts.

Among other efforts, the airline has doubled the number of people at call centres to reduce the turnaround time.

'Vihaan.AI' is a comprehensive transformation plan with a detailed road map for next five years.

About the turnaround plan, Wilson said that taxiing will be the first phase where it will identify and address all of the things that have tarnished or are continuing to tarnish the Air India brand.