Air India CEO: 'The Power is in Our Hands' to Capture Outbound Travel Demand

India is poised to be the fifth-largest outbound travel market by 2027, but will foreign carriers capture a lot of that growth?

"I think the power is in our hands," said Air India CEO Campbell Wilson at the Skift India Forum Tuesday. "As time goes on, more and more of Indian aviation's critical mass will be in India," he added, while acknowledging that aircraft supply constraints will be determined by external partners.

Wilson said the fundamental constraint for Indian aviation in recent years was not deploying more capacity. Local carriers now have more than 1,000 aircraft on order.

Both of the country's major airlines — Air India and IndiGo — are ordering widebody aircraft for international operations, as well as hundreds of smaller jets.

"I think that's a good thing because it's bringing the locus of Indian travel back onto Indian soil, and all of the spin-off economic benefits that brings tourism to airports, caterers, hoteliers and everything else," Wilson said.

He noted that Indians' inclination to fly is about one-tenth of that of China, and India's position is similar to that of China 20 years ago.

"In India, outbound travel is growing by 8% per year compound," Wilson said. "It doesn't take too many years to double."

Loyalty as a Giant Opportunity

Skift Airlines Editor Gordon Smith asked Wilson about the potential of the airline's loyalty program, the Maharaja Club.

Wilson confirmed that Air India Express will be integrated into the loyalty program "probably sometime this year."

Wilson highlighted that the Maharaja Club already has 10 million members and it's adding around 300,000 more every month, describing the upside as "huge."

In a candid assessment, he said that one year ago the loyalty program was "uncompetitive and not customer friendly."

"I really think, sort of like Qantas frequent flyer in Australia, Air India frequent flyer will be the second currency of India," Wilson said.

Will Artificial Intelligence Automate Operations?

Skift CEO Rafat Ali asked Wilson, which parts of Air India's operations — beyond customer service — would be the first to get automated by generative AI.

Wilson said that AI would be used for "augmentation," not "substitution."

Issuing refunds and training pilots, cabin crew and ground staff would be areas where gen AI would be a fit, Wilson said.

"The number of procedures a ground staff needs to remember, a cabin crew needs to remember, a pilot needs to remember, gen AI can can aggregate, synthesize and present a very concise answer based on your tens of thousands of pages of SOP and policy," Wilson said.

How Will Air India Navigate Economic Turmoil?

Asked about economic uncertainty and talk of recession in the U.S., Wilson said "I think we are largely insulated from it for a few reasons."

Among the factors, India is growing fast and organically, Indian carriers are playing catch-up in market share, and they have the opportunity to deploy aircraft in markets popular with Indian travelers, Wilson said.

"So I think our problem is actually more one of supply rather than one of demand," Wilson said.

IndiGo CEO, Pieter Elbers, is due to speak at the Skift India Forum later on Tuesday.