Tata Group-owned Air India is utilising the engineering skills available with group airlines to carry out more maintenance work of the aircraft under its own quality control amid multiple instances of its legacy planes facing operational issues, according to a senior company official. The official also said the airline is keen to lease aircraft but the market is very tight, especially for wide-body planes.

After the takeover by the Tata Group in 2022, loss-making Air India has been making efforts for improvement and has embarked on a five-year transformation plan.

To address the engineering issues more effectively, the official told PTI that Air India is bringing the work of line maintenance component in-house as well as using the licensing and skills of the group airlines to do some things in certain types of aircraft. Such an approach will help Air India in doing more "maintenance work under our own quality control", the official said on condition of anonymity.

Air India is setting up a maintenance base in Bengaluru and the facility will be operational by the end of next year. The group has four airlines -- Air India, Air India Express, AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India), and Vistara.

The systematic upgrade is being done to bring some aircraft to the healthy standard. These are old Boeing 787s and 777s, the official said, while speaking on the sidelines of the IATA annual general meeting in Dubai this week.