More US flights on offer, premium economy class on cards: Significance of Air India’s fleet expansion

Air India has announced it will induct 30 new aircraft including five wide-bodied Boeing planes from December in a dramatic expansion plan in a bid to boost its domestic and international services.

The Tatas-owned carrier has signed leases and letters of intent for inducting to induct five wide-bodied Boeing and 25 Airbus narrow-bodied planes over the next 15 months.

“These new aircraft, which will enter service from late 2022, will increase the airline’s fleet by over 25 per cent. Not counting the 10 long-grounded narrow-bodied and six wide-bodied aircraft that have been returned to service in recent months, these new aircraft mark the first major fleet expansion since Air India’s acquisition by the Tata Group earlier this year,” it said in a release.

“Air India’s narrow-bodied fleet currently stands at 70 aircraft, of which 54 are in service; the remaining 16 aircraft will progressively return to service by early 2023. Similarly, Air India’s wide-bodied fleet currently stands at 43 aircraft, of which 33 are operational. The rest will return to service by early 2023,” as per Mint.

Let’s take a closer look at which planes are being leased and what this means in the big picture:

Which planes are being leased?

The planes being leased include 21 Airbus A320 neos, four Airbus A321 neos and five Boeing B777-200LRs.

The B777-200LRs will join the fleet between December 2022 and March 2023.

“The B777-200LRs will join the fleet between December 2022 and March 2023, and will be deployed on routes from Indian metro cities to the United States of America. Mumbai will see the addition of flights to San Francisco as well as to both of the New York area’s international airports, Newark Liberty and John F Kennedy, while Bangalore will receive a 3x weekly service to San Francisco,” the company said in a press release.

More routes on offer, premium economy class on anvil

As per Simple Flying, the company has being eyeing the North American expansion but has been unable to proceed due to a lack of active wide-bodied craft.

The new craft being inducted will allow the airline to service longer routes.

As per Business Standard, wide-bodied planes have a larger fuel tank, allowing them to travel longer distances such as India-US routes. Air India has already confirmed that the craft will be deployed on routes from Indian metro cities to the US.

Air India has already added more flights to Canada, and the incoming 777-200LRs will also make other routes possible, as per Simple Flying.

The airline’s new wide-bodied planes will allow it to offer premium economy class for the first time

As per Indian Express, premium economy class is currently offered in India only by Vistara, a joint venture of Tata-Singapore Airlines.

“After a long time without significant growth, Air India is delighted to resume expanding its fleet and global footprint… Air India has exciting expansion and renewal plans, of which these new aircraft are just the beginning,” Campbell Wilson, chief executive officer and managing director of Air India, was quoted as saying by Business Standard.

Air India previously expanded its fleet in 2016 when it leased 14 Airbus A320neo aircraft, as per Indian Express. This was preceded by an order to purchase 111 Airbus narrow-bodied planes and Boeing wide-bodied planes in 2006-2007.

Tata Sons chairperson N Chandrasekaran in February vowed to make Air India financially fit, upgrade aircraft, bring in new fleet and make it the most technologically advanced airline globally.

Virtually addressing employees of Air India across the globe, he said for the airline to be the best again there will be an organisational redesign, and it will “require a huge transformation, probably the largest transformation and the change all of you would ever go through".

The carrier will expand its “outreach both domestically and internationally" and it has the desire to connect India with every part of the globe, he added.

For Tata group, Chandrasekaran said the joining of Air India in its fold will help the conglomerate with the opportunity to represent the aspirations of 130 crore Indians, having already touched the lives of 60 crore Indians through its various brands, including Taj hotels, Tanishq, Tata Salt and Jaguar Land Rover.

He identified four core areas on which Air India will focus under the new management. These are providing best-in-class customer service, making it the most technologically advanced airline in the world, upgrading and modernising the fleet and hospitality, both in-flight and off-flight.

On fleet modernisation, Chandrasekaran said, “We will upgrade our fleet. We will bring modernity to our fleet. We will bring a new fleet, we will expand our outreach. We will not only increase the number of aircraft that we will have, wide bodied and narrow bodied, (but) we will fly to many destinations," he said.

Air India had a total debt of Rs 61,562 crore as of August 31, 2021. Of the total amount, Tata group took over Rs 15,300 crore and the rest 75 per cent or around Rs 46,000 crore was transferred to a special purpose vehicle, AI Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL).

For Air India to achieve its goals under the new management, Chandrasekaran told the employees that it will “require a huge transformation, probably the largest transformation and the change all of you would ever go through." In order to do this, he said, “we will embark upon many changes, organisational redesign, process changes, digitising of all our processes and many other changes in individual departments and teams."

Stating that targets will be set at individual, departmental and company levels so that everyone knows what needs to be done, he said, “… and all our goals will come together to achieve the bigger purpose. I’m pretty sure we will pull this off in the coming months." He said the transformation of Air India is part of a larger transformation that the Tata group is going through at its various companies in order to be future ready.

Asking Air India employees to join in the new journey, Chandrasekaran said, “we have the entire nation wanting us to succeed. I know Air India has what it takes to succeed. We just need the inspiration to be able to come together and put our best to embark on this journey… And I’m counting all of you."

With inputs from agencies

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