New Delhi, Jan. 28 -- On 27 January 2022, the government sold its beleaguered airline Air India to the Tata Group. Four years later, the airline is in better shape, on a path of consolidation, growth, and repair. Yet the pace of that turnaround, amid generally favourable industry conditions, has fallen short of management's expectations. A key setback was the crash of an Air India international flight in Ahmedabad in June 2025.

But even without that tragedy, data shows that Air India and its low-cost subsidiary, Air India Express, have grown more slowly than their main rival, IndiGo, and are far from challenging its dominance.

India's domestic aviation market has steadily expanded. The year the Tatas acquired Air India was still a recov...