Air India Express

Is Air India Express safe?

Air India Express has a weaker record than most airlines of its size. It has had two fatal crashes in 16 years, both 737-800s running off the end of short tabletop runways after unstable approaches, and the official report on the second crash blamed a company culture that produced "repeated human error accidents". We score it 58, about level with its parent Air India. The fleet is getting younger and the airline has more than doubled in size since 2023, but a May 2026 take-off along the runway edge at Muscat shows the problems are not all in the past.

The Mangalore and Kozhikode crashes

Mangalore, 22 May 2010. Flight IX812 from Dubai arrived high and fast on an overnight flight. India's Court of Inquiry found that the captain continued an unstabilised approach despite three calls from the first officer to go around and repeated ground-proximity warnings. He had slept for much of the flight and may have been suffering from sleep inertia. The Boeing 737-800 touched down far along the runway, the captain tried to go around after selecting reverse thrust, and the aircraft overran into a gorge. 158 of the 166 people on board died.

Kozhikode, 7 August 2020. Flight IX1344, a repatriation flight from Dubai during the pandemic, landed on runway 10 in heavy rain with a tailwind. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) found that the captain continued an unstabilised approach and touched down about halfway along the runway; the first officer called for a go-around but did not take control. The aircraft ran off the end, dropped about 35 m down the embankment and broke in two. 21 of 190 people died.

The 2020 report went further than the pilots. It found that Air India Express management policies had led to "a lack of supervision in training, operations and safety practices", that crew-resource training was ineffective and that simulator faults gave pilots "negative training". Kozhikode had one captain based there against 26 first officers, and the captain wanted to get back to operate the next morning's flight.

Other serious events

• October 2018, Tiruchirappalli: a 737-800 bound for Dubai lost thrust on the take-off roll when the captain's seat recliner failed and the thrust levers were pulled back by accident. Neither pilot noticed. The tail hit the ground past the runway end and the aircraft struck the localizer antenna and the boundary wall, then flew on for hours before diverting to Mumbai.
• June 2019, Mangalore: a 737-800 from Dubai ran off the runway after a second approach. The AAIB classed it as a serious incident.
• May 2024, Bengaluru: a 2014 Airbus A320 from the former AirAsia India fleet returned with an engine fire on climb. The crew evacuated and 10 passengers had minor injuries. The AAIB traced the fire to an oil leak after a part was assembled out of tolerance in a repair shop.
• 15 May 2026, Muscat: a 737-800 lined up on the right-hand runway edge lights and began its take-off roll there, hitting lights until the crew rejected the take-off at about 70 knots. Tyres, both engines and the hydraulics were damaged; nobody was hurt. Oman's investigators have published a preliminary report.

The DGCA's recent fines on Air India Express, ₹10 lakh in 2024 over passenger compensation and ₹30 lakh over a livery change, were not about flight safety.

The AirAsia India merger and fleet

AIX Connect, the former AirAsia India, merged into Air India Express on 1 October 2024. The DGCA issued an updated operating certificate, and all flights now use the IX code. The merged airline had 88 aircraft then and about 110 by April 2025, according to ch-aviation.

Air India Express had taken 41 new Boeing 737-8s by April 2025, many of them built for Chinese airlines that did not take them, with about 90 more 737-8s and 50 737-10s on order. The rest of the fleet is older 737-800s and the AirAsia India A320s and A320neos. Some of the 737-800s were built in 2006 and 2007.

Air India Express is an IATA member, so it passes the IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit, and it answers to India's DGCA, which holds FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary.

Flying Air India Express: practical points

• Prefer daytime arrivals at Kozhikode and Mangalore in the monsoon if you have the choice. Both crashes were on wet or high-energy approaches to these short tabletop runways.
• Look at the aircraft type when you book. The 737-8 (often shown as 737 MAX) and A320neo are the newest aircraft in the fleet.
• Leave your bags in an evacuation. At Bengaluru in 2024, the injuries came on the slides; getting out fast matters more than your luggage.

How we scored it

The accident record (48) reflects two fatal crashes in the last 16 years and an investigation that pointed at the company, not just the crew. Serious incidents (55) include the 2026 Muscat take-off. A fleet in transition (72) and the same regulator and IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit as the rest of the group (72) hold the score up. See IndiGo for the strongest Indian record on the same domestic and Gulf routes.