New Delhi: Air India wants the country to know that their domestic flying experience has undergone an overhaul. Its medium of choice is five 30-second ads.
Flight diversions, mishandled luggage, dirty toilets, broken seats, poor quality of food and to make things worse, a fatal crash. Air India has constantly made headlines this year and for all the wrong reasons.
Now, following an ambitious transformation under the Tata Group, the airline urges the passengers to give the brand a second chance.
Titled ‘Change is in the Air’, the campaign showcases upgraded cabins across all classes, which means better meals, better hospitality, and more comfort. Air India says that over 90 per cent of its domestic flights will feature upgraded interiors by the end of 2026.
All the ads end with the same tagline—That’s Air India now.
But, Captain Sanjay Chakravarty, Director of Operations at Aero Sports Sky Venture and a flight safety expert, is skeptical of the airlines’ claims.
“In the last few years, customers have lost their trust in the airline. So, the campaign should have catered to that doubt. Instead, they have just glamourised their service,” Chakravarty told ThePrint.
According to him, the campaign won’t do much for the brand.
“These selling points have time and again been repackaged and sold by not just Air India but others as well. Customers are way smarter now, that’s the difference,” he added.
Also read: Air India has a problem. It should be much better run now without the political meddling
A glamourised dream
The commercials are set in a dreamlike setting, with passengers engaging with the airline’s upgraded offerings.
In one ad, an economy-class traveller talks about her boredom and how she will have to stare at clouds for two hours because there’s no seatback screen. Her co-passenger quickly chimes in, pointing her to Air India’s Vista Stream platform, packed with films that can be streamed straight from a mobile phone.
There’s also a business-class storyline centred on a father and daughter. There is a calm on the face of the father as he watches his daughter sleep peacefully beside him, following which the flight attendant serves him coffee.
Even the airline’s long-mocked pain points—the dreaded middle seat and the much-criticised meals—are both given a redemption arc.
In one clip, a passenger’s gloom evaporates the moment a steaming hot tray arrives. “Neither the middle seat nor the meal is a sandwich,” he said. Another film goes all out, showing a passenger relishing a lavish, multi-course spread.
Across all films, the storytelling hovers around cinematic finish, but they drift into an airline dreamland, due to which the emotional connection feels slightly out of reach. There is also subtle humour like the “middle seat and meal” being compared to ‘sandwich’ but that’s where the creativity and communication ends.
As Chakravarty pointed out, in the pursuit of gloss and grandeur, the airline seems to have lost sight of the most important element of all: Its customers and their grievances.
“Majority problems were reported in the domestic travels. If someone is travelling from Mumbai to Goa, or Chennai to Pondicherry, or Delhi to Kolkata—they are not looking for these luxuries,” Chakravarty said, adding that the campaign does nothing to restore the faith of its passengers.
“It’s definitely an attempt to clean the image, and there is nothing wrong with that. But this campaign doesn’t do the job for me,” he said.
Notably, this campaign comes at the heels of Air India facing an investigation into its aircraft flying without an airworthiness permit.
Still, the videos have drawn a combined 122 million views on YouTube. But will audiences buy into it this fancy dream, only time will tell.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)