Sr.No.

PARTICULARS

1.

COMPANY PROFILE

2.

VISION & MISSION

3.

CHARACTERISTICS

4.

POSITIONING

5.

BRANDING

6.

7PS OF AIR INDIA

7.

COMPLAINT HANDLING AND RECOVERY

8.

BENCHMARKING OF COMPANY

9.

CURRENT STATUS OF THE COMPANY

10.

REFERENCE

COMPANY PROFILE
Air India is Indias national Airline. Air Indias history can be traced to October 15, 1932. On this day J.R.D. Tata, the father of Civil Aviation in India and founder of Air India, took off from Drigh Road Airport, Karachi, in a tiny, light single-engine de Havilland Puss Moth on his flight to Mumbai via Ahmedabad. Air India was earlier known as Tata Airlines. At the time of its commencement, Tata Airlines consisted of one Puss Moth, one Leopard Moth, one palmthatched shed, one whole time pilot, one part-time engineer, and two apprentice-mechanics. Tata Airlines was converted into a Public Company under the name of Air India in August 1946.On March 8, 1948, Air India International Limited was formed to start Air Indias international operations.

On June 8, 1948, Air India started its international services with a weekly flight from Mumbai to London via Cairo and Geneva with a Lockheed Constellation aircraft. In early 1950s due to deteriorating financial condition of various airlines, the Government decided to nationalize air transport. On August 1, 1953 two autonomous corporations were created. Indian Airlines was formed with the merger of eight domestic airlines to operate domestic services, while Air India International was established to operate the overseas services. The word 'International' was dropped in 1962. With effect from March 1, 1994, the airline has been functioning as Air India Limited.

Air India's worldwide network today covers 44 destinations by operating services with its own aircraft and through code-shared flights. Important destinations covered by Air India are Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Osaka, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Dar-es-Salam, Nairobi, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Birmingham, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Bahrain, Dammam, Doha, Dubai, Jeddah, Muscat, Riyadh, Kuwait, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York.

VISION AND MISSION

1. To be among top five Asian airlines in terms of Yield, Profitability, Productivity, Size and Quality Focus on customer satisfaction. 2. Grow with emphasis on sustained profitability 3. Provide exciting and satisfying work environment to retain and develop employees committed to Corporate Vision Focus on social responsibility environment & community.

Objective
Achieve unit revenue, unit cost, profitability, productivity and service level targets, based on benchmarked parameters.

Characteristics of Air Transport

1. Aeroplanes fly according to pre-decided time schedule.

2. Aeroplanes fly through definite corridors while crossing over different countries due to safety reasons.

3. Air transport is the most suitable mode of transport for long distances.

4. It is not suitable for transporting heavy goods. However, under special conditions the aeroplanes can take army tanks with them.

5. Light, costly and perishable goods are transported by aeroplanes.

6. It is suitable for relief operations at any place, at the time of calamities and emergencies, such as floods-earthquakes, accidents, etc.

7. Air transport is suitable for hilly, desert, in accessible areas where other means of transport are not favourable.

POSITIONING
The positioning for Air India has been focused as a quality & premium traffic airline. The coverage of its new avatar has got excellent media hype. Advertising & Public relations have communicated its new image. Now, its the turn of word-of-mouth publicity. Air India is also planning to enter the prestigious Star Alliance (Air India may join Star Alliance after Dec. 2007). Star alliance is an alliance of intl airlines airline which currently has17 membersAir Canada Air New Zealand Asiana Airlines Austrian SAS Scandinavian Airlines Singapore Airlines South African Airways Swiss TAP Portugal Thai United Airlines US Airways. This is the second & only chance to have a pie of boom in Indian Aviation for Air India to grab this opportunity & become the most preferred airline in the world.

BRANDING
As a marketing student, I thought to apply some marketing aspects. Thats how I came up with an idea to find something on re- branding of Air India. The process of re-branding took place in 2005. DMA Branding a division of Aliagroup was given the task of re-branding the airline. DMA branding has done projects for many products & companies like Dabur, Ayush etc. The steps in the way to re-branding of Air India-

1. Dropping of hyphen from its , name i.e. from Air-India to Air India. 2. Tagline Fly Well adopted. 3. Designing the seats (by DMA). 4. New uniform (new look to traditional sari) designed by Ritu Beri. 5. A graphic swan with Ashoka Chakra design.

7ps OF AIR INDIA

I am analysing the AirIndia in context to the 7Ps of marketing mix. And they are: 1) Product The air transport service.

2) Pricing Variety of structured price bands categorized on the basis of the various combinations of routes (Short/long distances and number of halts etc.) and categories (i.e. Business class, Economy class).

3) Promotions Point of purchases i.e. ticketing counters at traveling agencies, online options (E.g. Membership promotions, couple tickets, Tourist packages for agencies and various other individual and corporate offers).

4) Place Ticketing counters delivering services & through SMS.

5) People A team of skilled & professionally trained pilots, ground staff, flight attendants, freight movers and packers, security personnel, management decision makers and most importantly, customers.

6) Process To avail of the air service, there is online or manual booking of tickets.

7) Physical Evidence The service itself and the ad hoardings.

COMPLAINT HANDLING AND RECOVERY

A simplified and convenient procedure is in place for receipt and acknowledgement of grievance, complaints and feedback . How to reach them: 1. You can login on to Air India website www.airindia.in>contact us >customer support> feedback form. 2. On submission of the feedback form, an automated acknowledgement bearing a Unique Reference Number will be instantly generated. Facility also exists to view the status of the feedback with the help of this unique reference number. You can also contact any of their Regional Customer Service Offices for Redressal of your grievance/complaint. To ensure efficacy, the Customer Services offices have been primarily divided into various Regions as per the List of Stations under their respective purview. (Refer the website www.airindia.in >contact us >contact details). India & SAARC Countries: Eastern Region ialcser@airindia.in Northern Region ialcsnr@airindia.in Southern Region ialcssr@airindia.in Western Region ialcswr@airindia.in South East Asia, Australia, Gulf and Middle East, USA & Canada, UK & Ireland, Europe, Russia, Africa and Far East : HQ.TFCSVCS@airindia.in21

3. Suggestions / complaints can also be made at all Air India Reservation Offices / Airports on the suggestion forms available at these locations. 4. While flying, you can fill up the feedback forms available on board and hand over the same to their cabin crew.

Redressal System:All complaints are acknowledged within 03 working days and an endeavour is made to send a final reply within 21 working days. In case any further investigations are required, which may take longer time, efforts are made to resolve the same within the shortest possible time frame. In case you feel that your complaint/ grievance has not been properly addressed, you may contact any officer of Air India.

BENCHMARKING OF THE COMPANY

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 25M domestic and 15m international passengers. On time punctuality 93% Provide non stop connectivity. Develop a strong feeder network. Best practices to support joining of star alliance. Mainline operation and cargo. Strong IT backbone to support business processes. Target revenue of Rs.65000 million. Catering, hospitality and independent training centre to be separate.

CURRENT STATUS OF THE COMPANY

Currently undergoing a government rescue, Air Indias debt is expected to touch $20 billion (Rs 90,000 crore today) by the end of this fiscal. It has been afflicted by labour strife, hasnt paid its employees for two months and most recently its entry into the Star Alliance grouping was suspended. Air India has made an after-tax loss of about Rs 6,994 crore and Rs 5,552.44 crore in the last two fiscal years, respectively. It has also seen multiple industrial disputes in this period, with a loss of Rs 200 crore alone due to a pilots strike in May. Last month, in a major embarrassment, the airlines entry into Star Alliance was suspended, the first time this has happened in the groupings 14-year history. Air India denied that the action took place because it hadnt met conditions for entry.

REFERENCE

www.google.com www.scribd.com www.studymore.com Book : Service Sector Management by Romeo S. Mascarenhas.