Mid-air Fallout

The Air India tragedy exposes cracks in India's aviation boom

- Gargi Shukla

JUNE 12, 2025 began as an ordinary day for Indians until the nation of 1.4 billion people found itself glued to its television and smartphone screens to witness the horrors of the London-bound Air India 171 plane crash. Air India's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which crashed within seconds of taking off, led to the death of over 250 people.

The tragedy has exposed deeper fractures beneath the surface of India's aviation boom. It has raised concerns over whether the stakeholders in the third-largest aviation market, including the government and the airlines, gave precedence to scale and size over safety and security.

India's aviation market is set to grow at 12.03 per cent CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) from $14.78 billion in 2025 to $26.08 billion in 2030, according to a study by market research firm Mordor Intelligence. The aviation boom in India has also fuelled the growth of many sub-businesses within the broader industry, including airlines, airports, cargo, Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services and ground handling services.

But experts have pointed out that as the size and scale of the aviation market attracted stakeholders, safety and security in air travel seem to have taken a back seat. Mark D. Martin, the founder and CEO of Martin Consulting, said that Air India, for the past five years, has been defying the law as the airline continued operations with major maintenance-related issues unaddressed. Problems like broken seats, malfunction of the ground air conditioning system, vibration in engines and issues with flight controls, fuel pumps and outflow valves have plagued the airline for quite a few years now, Martin added.