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Air India CEO says carrier embracing ‘new normal’ of safety focus after deadly crash
An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.
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LONG BEACH, Calif. — Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the carrier has embraced a “new normal” and a stepped-up safety focus following the crash of one of its planes in June, the deadliest aviation disaster in a decade.
All but one of the 242 people on board Air India Flight 171 on June 12 were killed when the Boeing Dreamliner, bound for London, crashed seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad in western India. Another 19 other people were killed on the ground.
A preliminary report released in July showed confusion in the cockpit when fuel cutoff switches were flipped off. The cockpit voice recording captured one pilot asking the other why he cut off the fuel and the other responding that he did not.
“The investigation is still ongoing, so I can’t comment too freely, but this has been an absolutely devastating event for the people involved, for families, for the company, for staff, and our focus over the last two months has been very much to support them in every way possible,” Wilson said at the Airline Passenger Experience Association’s conference and expo in Long Beach, California, on Tuesday.
“We continue to work with the regulator on the investigation and ensuring that whatever learnings come about from that investigation are put into play. For the moment, the preliminary report indicates nothing wrong with the aircraft, nothing wrong with the engines, nothing wrong with the airlines operation, but we’ve taken a significant safety pause to ensure all of our practices and procedures are fully embedded, and people are fully embracing a new normal of even extra focus on safety, and the focus continues to be on the people that were affected,” he said.
Air India had been in the middle of a massive modernization effort to better compete with other carriers and gain new customers in India’s fast-growing aviation market at the time of the crash. The refresh began after Tata Group privatized the 93-year-old carrier from the government three years ago.
That revamp is continuing with new cabins and better technology, said Wilson, an airline veteran who has previously served as CEO of Scoot, Singapore Airlines’ low-cost carrier. The carrier has placed orders for some 570 aircraft.
“Once Air India was privatized [we] could adopt more normal private sector practices, could make long-term decisions, had the capital to invest,” he said.
As governments across the world restricted the movements of their citizens during Covid lockdowns from 2020, people spent more time online. We bought more online and socialised more online, and this brought us closer to the people who want to scam us. At the same time, realistic video impersonations, voices, websites, and texts became more commonplace, and scammers increased their use of social media including WhatsApp.
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NaBFID signs pact with PDCOR to expand advisory support for state projects – The Times of India
The National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Projects Development Company of Rajasthan Limited (PDCOR) to strengthen advisory services for state and city-level infrastructure projects.The agreement will also allow both institutions to jointly explore financing and transaction advisory opportunities, including transaction structuring, commercial and technical due diligence, and support for financial closure of projects undertaken by state governments and urban local bodies across India, according to PTI.“This collaboration seeks to enhance access to long-term institutional finance for State Governments and Urban Local Bodies, while strengthening the infrastructure advisory and financing ecosystem,” Rajkiran Rai G., Managing Director of NaBFID, said.He added that the partnership would help both institutions jointly pursue project advisory opportunities, develop replicable financing frameworks, accelerate financial closures and mobilise capital across the infrastructure value chain.Monika Kalia, DMD-CFO, NaBFID, said the tie-up would leverage the strengths of both organisations to provide much-needed advisory support to states and urban local bodies for impactful urban infrastructure projects.Dileep Chingapurath, Chief Executive Officer, PDCOR, said the agreement would address the long-felt need for end-to-end professional support to structure and mobilise sustainable financing solutions, particularly for state governments and their agencies.“Through this collaboration, both institutions aim to enhance the quality of project preparation, mobilise institutional capital more effectively and accelerate the implementation of sustainable infrastructure projects across states and municipalities,” he said.NaBFID is a Development Financial Institution focused on long-term infrastructure financing, while PDCOR is an undertaking of the Government of Rajasthan.
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