TBM Staff - Mumbai Air India and the Centre are aligned on making India a civil aviation hub, like Dubai or Singapore, and this is part of the company’s plan as well, its CEO and Campbell Wilson has said.
In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Wilson spoke on a range of issues and said he is upbeat not just about the direction that the company is going in, but also what the future holds for Indian aviation.
Being a part of the government for a long time has instilled a certain culture in Air India and that is part of the reason that the civil aviation regulator had to take action against the carrier over safety issues, Wilson said. He was answering a question on the recent suspension of the airline’s Chief of Flight Safety for a month after an inspection found lapses in the carrier’s accident-prevention protocol.
“There’s a lot of reasons why Air India is what it is. It’s had a long history, background as part of the government. That’s imbued a certain culture. And we are spending a lot of time bringing in people, bringing in training, bringing in systems, bringing in consequence management, and really demonstrating what world-class standards are in a safety environment,” he said.
The MD emphasised that they are actively “plugging into” external bodies, like the International Air Transport Association and the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, to ensure that the airline deeply understands the standards that are required.
“Promulgating them through an organisation that has been acting in a certain way for a long time takes time. And educating people and reinforcing that standards that might have been acceptable in the past are no longer acceptable now requires constant attention. We’re not sparing any effort in making this happen. It is disappointing that we have these episodes, but they have to be episodes that we learn from,” he said. (Source: NDTV)
