Air India Group starts vacating its offices from government-owned properties

Air India has decided to vacate its offices in government-owned properties, and will house them jointly with other Tata group airlines, including Vistara, in a modern campus in the national capital region by March next year.

Air India, which was taken over by the salt-to-software conglomerate in January this year, continued with offices in government buildings including Airlines House near Parliament House in the national capital, a company statement said on Friday.

Airline staff in this office as also the ones in Delhi's Safdarjung Complex, GSD Complex and IGI Terminal One will be temporarily located in an office space in Gurugram beginning this month and will move to a newly-built Vatika complex in early 2023.

The idea is to house employees of all group airlines including Vistara and Air Asia India at one location.

"Air India Group has embarked on its strategy to consolidate workspaces across the country as an integral part of its transformation agenda," the statement said.

The consolidation of workspaces, it said, is being undertaken to improve collaboration, strengthen the organisation's culture, upgrade employees' work environment and facilities, and more easily deploy new technology.

"Beginning from this month, a number of Air India offices presently housed in government-owned premises across the country are being vacated.

"The largest base of staff, located in Delhi's Airlines House, Safdarjung Complex, GSD Complex and IGI Terminal One, will move to an interim office space in Gurugram before ultimately relocating to a campus at the newly-constructed Vatika One-On-One development in early 2023," it said.

In May, the group had asked its staff to vacate the government-owned housing colonies, including big ones in Delhi and Mumbai.

Besides Air India and its international budget arm Air India Express, Tata Group also holds a majority 51 per cent stake in Vistara, its joint venture airline with Singapore Airlines (SIA), and a 83.67 per cent stake in budget carrier AirAsia India.

Air India, Air India Express and AirAsia India will be housed jointly in a modern office campus in the National Capital Region by March next year, in line with this consolidation strategy, which is being undertaken to improve collaboration and more easily deploy new technology, among others, according to the statement.

The transition to the interim facility in NCR is being undertaken during the course of September, Air India said, adding that besides providing last-mile connectivity to the office premises from the closest public transport stations for ease of travel, flexible work hours are also being offered to employees.

"The consolidation of many premises under one roof, and the evolution from a regionalised to centralised structure, is a significant milestone in Air India's transformation journey," said 
Campbell Wilson, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Air India.

Together with the relocation and consolidation of offices, the airline's regionalised organisation structure will be progressively disbanded and replaced with a centralised one, which will allow consolidation of presently-dispersed teams, co-location of managers with their teams and physical adjacency of related functions, according to the statement.

It also said that a senior team is also relooking at the offices in different cities which are housed in legacy premises, with some in Chennai and Kochi having already moved to modern office premises.