New Air India CMD Pledges to Clean Up Act

The new Chairman and Managing Director of major Asian airline Air India Ashwani Lohani has signalled his intent to bring the carrier back to the forefront of world travel by pledging to initiate a dedicated monitoring team to ensure customer experience is higher than ever before.

Lohani was installed as the new CMD at the beginning of September, replacing Rohit Nandan. He wasted no time in visiting all of the firm’s engineering bases around the country within the first month of his stewardship and signalled his intention to “resurrect the old glory of the national carrier”.

“There is a need to enhance passengers’ experience, which can be done through high standards of cleanliness of the aircraft, improvements to the cabin, audience announcements and courteous behaviour, among others, to resurrect the old glory of Air India,” explained Lohani.

“Surprise Checks”

Lohani aims to improve customer satisfaction first and foremost by making sure that all aircraft meet stringent safety and cleanliness standards. A press release issued by the company outlined his vision:

“Senior executives will undertake surprise checks to monitor and supervise the safety and cleanliness inside and outside the aircraft. They will ensure increased servicing of equipment onboard the aircraft,” said the release. “A senior officer of engineering will closely monitor cleaning service providers for quality of cleaning in the cabins. More manpower will be deployed on each aircraft for cabin upkeep. Immediate action will be taken on the feedback shared by the passengers, cabin crew and cabin engineers.”

Maintaining India’s Golden Standard

The news that India’s biggest airline will be revamping its image comes hot on the heels of the revelations of the world's first solar-powered airport, which opened in Cochin (or Kochi) in August. The complex, which covers 45 acres, utilises 46,150 solar panels and is capable of producing up to as many as 60,000 units of electricity every day, is the first of its kind in the world.

Such construction shows that India is attempting to bring itself into line with global calls to address our energy consumption habits. Currently, our use of fossil fuels is contributing untold amounts of carbon, methane and other harmful gases to the atmosphere, which work to raise global temperature, cause climate change and bring about a whole host of accompanying problems. Not to mention, of course, that fossil fuels are a finite resource as well.

The Cochin airport’s switch to reliance on solar power signals a forward-thinking view of our planet and how we should treat it, though the Asian supercountry still emits a significant amount of pollutants into the environment (along with China, of course). The article India and Middle East Air Quality Monitoring looks in more detail at the various technologies available for monitoring Indian pollution levels, variable factors in gathering the data and how best to apply it to practical solutions.