Air India technical incidents akin to gas leaks hit 14-month excessive | USAEMALL.com

NEW DELHI: Technical incidents such as engine oil and fuel leaks affecting Air India flights reached their highest rate in at least 14 months in January, a company document shows, underscoring growing strain on the carrier’s revamp ambitions. 

India’s second-largest airline has come under scrutiny from the country’s safety regulator since a crash last year killed 260 people. It has since reported many safety lapses and in December admitted there was a “need for urgent improvements in process discipline, communication, and compliance culture”.

In January, Air India recorded 1.09 technical incidents per 1,000 flights, quadrupling from levels of just 0.26 in December 2024, according to a document reviewed by Reuters that the carrier submitted to the Indian government in February. It did not provide earlier data.

Air India operated more than 17,500 flights in January and recorded 23 technical incidents on its international and domestic flights, according to the document, which is not public. At least 21 of those incidents were investigated formally by the airline.

“Systemic improvements (are) being introduced across flight ops, training, engineering quality, and procedural oversight to prevent recurrence,” the Air India document said.

In a statement to Reuters, the airline said it has undertaken a “comprehensive program to strengthen technical reliability” across its operations and increased its critical spares inventory by over 30 per cent to improve aircraft availability and reduce operational disruptions.

Air India added it has also made significant capital investments in engineering infrastructure and tooling to bolster its technical operations.

India’s civil aviation ministry did not respond to Reuters’ queries.

The document provided only selective comparisons to global airline industry norms based on data that is not publicly available and did not contain information on the airline’s budget subsidiary Air India Express.