Air India seems not content with just adding Vistara’s business class seats to its overall premium offering. The Tata Sons-owned full-service airline is currently expanding its business class and premium economy class offerings to about 100 narrow-body aircraft to strengthen its offering for passengers willing to pay more for a comfortable flying experience. Competitive leadership position vis-à-vis IndiGo Airlines.
Currently, Air India has a fleet of 62 narrow-body aircraft in all three cabin configurations – Business, Premium Economy and Economy. These include business class seats from the erstwhile Vistara Airlines, the premium full-service airline owned by the Tata Group that merged with Air India in November.
Air India is currently refurbishing 27 older A320 narrow-body aircraft with new seats and interiors as well as a three-class configuration, a person familiar with the company’s plans told Mint. “Air India will deploy an additional 50,000 premium seats per week on inter-metro routes as the revamp work is set to be completed by mid-year,” the person said on condition of anonymity.
The three-class configuration of Air India’s narrow-body fleet includes 8 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats and 132 economy class seats. Air India also has a first class section on wide-body aircraft.
Currently, Air India has premium seats on 86 aircraft, including 24 wide-body aircraft and 62 narrow-body aircraft. Overall, the airline deploys close to 80,000 premium seats (including first, business and premium economy) in India every week. Among them, approximately 47,000 premium seats are deployed on urban routes.
Air India has also launched other features for its passengers. On January 1, the airline became the first Indian airline to offer in-flight Wi-Fi on its Airbus A350, Boeing 787-9 and select Airbus A321neo fleets.
The planned premium seat expansion will give Air India an edge over IndiGo in terms of premium seat capacity. IndiGo, essentially a low-cost airline, launched a premium business product called IndiGoStretch in November last year and focused on inter-metro routes.
Over the next 14 months, IndiGo Stretch will expand to 45 aircraft on 12 routes with over 260 daily flight frequencies, IndiGo officials told Mint in an earlier report. Currently, IndiGoStretch is available on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Bengaluru flights and is expected to be available on the Delhi-Chennai route soon.
Air India did not immediately respond to Mint’s query.
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Domestic aviation took off in the 2000s as Air Deccan and Air IndiGo made flying more affordable for Indians. The industry has come full circle, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen huge pent-up demand for premium and business class travel surge in India.
Sanjay Lazar, CEO of aviation consulting firm Avialaz Consultants, said demand is particularly evident in the business class sector.
Air India enjoys a leading market share in premium seats, with huge demand for them on metro-to-metro routes such as Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru and Mumbai-Hyderabad. Some metro-to-non-metro routes such as Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Goa, Delhi-Chandigarh and Mumbai-Jaipur are also having a big impact on premium seats, said an unnamed person quoted earlier. needs.
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Air India vs IndiGo
Air India’s business class offerings include complimentary lounge access, three-course hot meals on board and seats with adjustable headrests, calf rests and foot rests. Air India also offers generous baggage allowance and priority check-in for business class passengers.
IndiGo’s premium product also comes with seats with adjustable headrests but does not include lounge access or hot meals. IndiGoStretch fares start from $18,000, Air India’s business class seats are much more expensive.
“Air India is going all out to provide Wifi, IFE (in-flight entertainment) and domestic services,” Avialaz Consultants’ Lazar said.
“Air India itself has its own business and first-class customers just like Vistara. So, it is easy to deduce that the domestic luxury/business class market is much more than 1-1.5 million seats per month online and in metros ( 100,000-150,000) seats, the advantages for the Tata family are huge.
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As for IndiGo’s premium ambitions, Lazar said that while “IndiGo Stretch does not currently compete with Air India business class but will compete with premium class,” it could dissuade cost-conscious corporate passengers from opting for business on full-service airlines cabin.
“IndiGo is just starting to warm up, and each plane only has 12 seats,” he said. Hot meals, IFE and many more extras.
He added that IndiGo has been working hard over the past 18 months to become a world-class medium and long-haul airline. “The competition will be exciting. While IndiGo has a strong presence in Air India’s domestic market, Air India is the leader in the international market.
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