In the new branding for Air India announced by Tata Sons and AI chairman N Chandrasekaran, Bobby Kooka's Maharaja takes a backseat. AI MD & CEO Campbell Wilson said "reports of Maharaja’s demise are exaggerated," and added that the mascot - in a ‘fitter’ avatar - will be seen more in India and not so much abroad, where it is "not quite understood what he stands for." Thus, he will appear in silhouette on in-flight bone china and glasses when travelling abroad.
According to Chandrasekaran, the new logo, which combines the well-known jharoka (window) of AI and Vistara's purple with AI's classic red and white, "signifies limitless possibilities, progressiveness, and confidence." The new livery will debut on the Airbus 350 aircraft that will join the AI fleet this year.
Terming AI’s revival as a world class airline a "national mission", Chandra said: "This requires enormous amounts of work because of where we start from... on technology, flight, maintenance, ground handling, all aspects of operations, and more..."
"Our fleet requires a lot of work. While we have placed one of the largest fleet orders, both narrow-and-wide-body, it’s going to take time for them to arrive. In the meantime, we have to refurbish and get our current fleet to acceptable levels," he said.
Wilson says one-third of AI’s wide-body fleet will be modern aircraft by next year. Then, the refurbishment of existing widebodies will begin. "All our wide-bodies will have new state-of-the-art facilities, including onboard WiFi, by the end of 2025," Wilson said.