LifeontheBeach

It looks like I have to take a domestic AI connection: that's the way my trip has been scheduled.

Read all the comments above and appreciate the info. However, taking AI domestic is no routine experience for me and I asked a colleague about this.

His interesting reply (which included the usual complaints, including late departures, indifferent service and attitude) aside, how is the safety in AI flights now?

There were a couple of stories about how a part fell off an AI 787 and about another time the door wasn't locked before flight.

Do these still happen? Leaving apart all else, is AI flight safe in in terms of the hard product? I'm thinking maintenance and such.

Keyser

this year i've generally taken about a dozen ai flights a month....i haven't come across any safety issues....

avcritic

Did bit of research on these reports as they started appearing even on main stream media like CNN (apparently Daily Mail's US partner).

Most false reports are from one blogger in India. It could be lack of aviation knowledge or some issue between blogger and company.

This blogger somehow even convinced atdb.aero to mark one of AI's stored frames (VT-ALH) as scrapped, which is active now.

In general Indian aviation reporters are like Daily Mail on steroids. There was a comment by avherald 99% of one Indian media group's av related reports being wrong.

AFAIK world wide, departing panels are #2 aviation related event (not even considered an incident and not even reported), wildlife related events are #1.

Scan through avherald, you will notice AI incidents are run of the mill incidents happen to every airline. Nothing out of ordinary.

I was surprised to learn AI's MRO is largest in Asia and does most of its mx in-house. Old school compared our airlines outsource mx model, but better IMHO.

Redhat72

Air India is rated 5/7 on safety by "AirlineRatings"

http://www.airlineratings.com/ratings/38/air-india

Most of the top airlines score a full 7 e.g. Emirates, Etihad, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, SWISS

It also depends on what your definition of safety is - are you simply concerned about an accident or also safety inside the cabin because of unruly passengers and how AI staff handles it. AI has been fatality free in the past 10 years although AI Regional had an accident in 2010.

avcritic

Ratings in aviation industry are like country club opinions. To get good rating you should be an elite or pay lot of cash. Some managements know how to work the system and others don't.

A quick glance at airlineratings shows two mistakes. India is Cat-I and has no ICAO SSCs.

Also third world doesn't know the mainline and regional trick.

Continental(Colgan) 3407, Delta(Comair) 5191 or Germanwings 9525 won't be counted as Continental, Delta or Lufthansa.

But Air India Express 812 is counted as AI. Interestingly some aviation safety databases still counting 30 year old AI 182 fatalities.

Clear indication AI is not a subscriber of any of these rating agencies.

Redhat72

Possibly true but unfortunately that is how most of the ratings & awards work. The "airlineratings.com" has been getting lot of attention lately as most of the airlines now use it to advertise their services. So if AI wants to compete with the top airlines, they need to focus and get their name heard.

I'm not a frequent traveler with AI but one complaint that I have always heard from my friends and relatives is that AI has a very poor customer service at the airport. This could be because the airport agents are not that experienced when it comes to managing operations. Pay scales being low & with aviation industry growing, hard for AI to keep experienced folks. All that affects the standard of service.

With unbeatable competition from Gulf carriers like Emirates and Etihad, hiring experienced folks is a challenge. I read somewhere that Emirates now has more employees in India than Air India has. I'm pretty sure that the GCC3 have better pay scales than AI.

AI has a great potential to grow, now that they have joined Star Alliance. I believe they doubled their revenue since joining SA, which is a good thing. So hopefully, things will change.

If I don't switch to Etihad, then I plan to try AI Business to US next year.

avcritic

I believe the concern was about safety not service quality.

Sure you need big PR budget, world class PR firm and hardcore law firm to build and maintain top class airline image. EK spends $2 Billion/year on PR, forget about AI, not sure even US3 can spend that much.

Overdoing has its own disadvantages like JAni's shower ad.

That is standard economic multiplier/job creation gimmick. US3 did an analysis on job creation for same route by a US3 vs ME3. If ME3 cannot create many jobs in US(ULH and Boeing purchases), they will be creating even less jobs in India with turnaround flights.

On the other hand I saw analysts complaining AI is bloated.
-AI group has 22,500 employees for 134 planes (Airports 50+, CC 3500, FC 1500, MX 6000,Others 11,000 - $200/month ground handling employees), 30% of AI's work force is going to retire over next 12 months. Bloated union employees
-EK group has 80,000 employees for 240 planes (Airport 1, CC 20000, FC 4000, Others 55000+) lean work force I guess.

PVDtoDEL

AI has some of the most respected maintenance facilities in India, and does most of its MX work in-house. Its pilots tend to be well-trained and professional. There is absolutely nothing to be concerned about regarding safety.

Reading the nonsensical tabloid articles about mundane MX problems is a waste of time. Every other carrier on the planet has the same kinds of events with regularity.

LifeontheBeach

Thanks everybody for your helpful answers.

I will take this AI flight (fingers crossed)!

678flyer

Bashing AI is a national sport in India. If an AI flight is late by a couple of hours, it makes it to the front page of timesofindia.com. Indians treat AI as their personal property; the same folks behave subserviently on any non Indian carrier. My personal experience on AI has been excellent in the last 2 yrs.

slickalick

I just flew a series of flights in Y on Air India - my first time flying them after over 15 years and have to say, whilst my expectations were low to begin with, they are not as bad as i seem to remember them or as bad as others make out to be.

HKG-DEL-HKG

Flights on time, service on board was actually quite warm and personable. Aircraft in good shape, and bathrooms remained relatively clean. Excellent seat pitch - unless i've lost a bit of weight recently (not likely), I felt there was way more space compared to SQ Y. Food - 3 selections from HK, Indian Veg/Non Veg and an Asian Non-Veg. Supper service from DEL was a biryani either Veg or Non Veg. IFE was quite light but had a few latest release movies. Overall was quite impressed, especially for the fare we paid.

DEL-BOM-DEL

The DEL-BOM sector was probably the worst, as it was an All-Y ex-IC bird which felt like it needed to be put out of its misery. The plane was in quite bad shape, and there was an unexplained 2 hour delay. Not a big deal, but some of the local passengers were getting quite rowdy. Flight back on DEL-BOM was good. No IFE on both domestic flights.

The international GVK lounge in BOM was fantastic - excellent service throughout and the quality of F&B was good.

Would I use them again - most certainly!

oliver2002

I did AI recently on the 787 from DEL to CCU in J. The cabin and seat is a bit unkept, but clean. The saffron color scheme is weird, but its definitely Indian

The meal service on the short flight was stellar. Three choices (veg/nonveg indian, one western) for breakfast, cornflakes with hot/cold milk, a fruit salad etc.

What I really like was the seat. Its the same as TK or ET, but felt very spacious. I had done QR J in the A359 and B788 just before that and liked the comfort of the AI seat more than QR. Of course on a short domestic hop they only had a flimsy blanket and pillow.

The IFE was much better than the last time I was on the 788 (2014). They had a about 24 western films and a ton of TV shows available. I only watched a few episodes of 2 broke girls and the big bang theory and noted quite a bit of censor ship of the soundtrack, similar to what you see on cable in India itself. The TV shows/seasons available where the exact same as on TK a month before

Going back in economy the service was decent too. The flight was delayed an hour as a result of the previous days fog chaos in DEL & CCU, but I had enough buffer in DEL. The staff was courteous, immediately noticing my *G and letting me skip the boarding queue. The A321 was very worn (but clean) and IFE inop. FAs in their new uniforms were very friendly and caring, looking to meet requests people had.

deovrat

This is one of my favourite domestic sectors in J. I often take the afternoon flight on 787.
You get access to AI's international lounge at DEL, which is noticeably better than the domestic one. The showers are quite clean and always available and the barcaloungers at the end are my favourite spot to perch with a snack.

The in-flight meals similarly have 3 lunch options, Indian Veg/Non-Veg and one Western (usually pasta).

Also, this particular flight (AI 20) has always been punctual whenever I took it.

oliver2002

Pics of the food are here: https://plus.google.com/photos/11341...96386708841931

deovrat

Nice album ^