Tata Sons chairman tries to uplift morale as turnaround effort stalls

PTI Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran
Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekharan met the leadership team in Gurugram for a complete safety review of the airline at its headquarters in Gurgaon. Chandrasekaran who is also the chairman of the airline said that the fatal crash is the most heart breaking crisis in his career and this accident should be used to build a safer airline.A Boeing 787 aircraft crashed last week seconds after taking off, killing 241 passengers and 33 on the ground.'Aviation is a very complex business, it's a complex machine, so a lot of redundancies, checks and balances, certifications, which have been perfected over years and years. Yet this happened, so we will figure out why it happened after the investigation is complete,' Chandrasekaran said according to a recording of the speech he gave at the airline's headquarters.Sources said that he visited the Emergency Command Centre, the Integrated Operations Control Centre and the Customer Service and Support.
According to the recording of the speech he said that while nothing can undo the tragedy, Air India must extend unwavering support to affected families, whom he described as part of the airline's family forever.
'Criticism is there, but it's not easy to face it especially for those of us who are very passionate, emotional and who are working on making Air India a great airline, and who genuinely care about what kind of a company we want to build. We are getting more determined,' he said.However, experts who are closely following Air India's turnaround under the ownership of Tatas, said that it will be a herculean task and the airline would need a complete overhaul of its structure.After taking over Air India in 2022, the Tatas embarked on ambitious turnaround plan, ordering a record 470 aircraft and investing crores to upgrade existing planes. The airline intends to compete against global majors like Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Lufthansa, CEO Campbell Wilson had told ET in an interview, a few days before the crash.'A lot needs to be done. They need to go back to the drawing board and see if the fast pace of expansion was stretching the safety and also improve the culture,' a consultant who worked with Air India said.A travel agent said that it will take a massive effort to win the trust of customers outside India. 'International routes are their bread and butter and we are seeing bookings being cancelled after the crash,' he said.
The Air India crash is the worst civil aviation disaster by number of fatalities since 2014, when Russia-backed forces in Ukraine shot down a Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people on board, according to Aviation Safety Network.

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