Last month, a news report talked about Air India deciding to induct three B777-300ER which earlier operated for Singapore Airlines. This presumably is to retire the three B777-200LRs of Air India, which may not have much residual life left and the refurbishment is expensive when compared to the life left. This week, VT-AER, the first of the six ex-Etihad B777-300ER landed in Delhi, even as the last of the ex-Delta B777-200LRs is yet to join the fleet.
The airline has been candid about its challenges, especially about seats and IFE, yet social media and news alternate between some not so good experiences of passengers and Air India’s quest for fixing seats and IFE.
Amidst the usual complaints which are seen on social media about broken seats, dirty planes and non-working IFE of Air India, there are some posts which talk highly of the newly launched service to San Francisco from Bengaluru and Mumbai and the “Premium Economy” cabin. These planes are the ex-Delta B777-200LRs.
The airline had announced the lease of six B777-300ER in December 2022. The press release mentioned these being configured in four-classes. Soon it became clear that these would be the ex-Etihad aircraft and would be in three and not four classes.
How are the Etihad B777s configured?
The six B77Ws which operated for Etihad and will be with Air India are all configured with 8 First Class, 40 Business Class seats and 280 economy class seats, a total of 328 seats. In Comparison, Air India’s own B777-300ER are configured with 4 First, 35 Business and 303 economy class seats, a total of 342 seats. Air India’s aircraft may be heavier on the economy configuration, but have nine-abreast seating as compared to 10-abreast for these ex-Etihad aircraft. This will be the only set of aircraft in the fleet of Air India currently to have 10 abreast seating. These aircraft are capable of inflight wi-fi.
The First cabin is arranged in two rows of 1-2-1 layout and has closing doors. These do not have overhead bins in First class and come with automatic controls for adjusting the seat. These are leather seats with a full flat bed. The Business class is arranged in 10 rows of 1-2-1 layout. Interestingly, there are two rows ahead of the second door giving it a private feel.
The economy class will have 282 seats with seat-back IFE. The seat pitch for Economy is 31 inches while that for Business and First is 73 inches and 80 inches respectively. The pitch in Business and First makes little impact since the seat in front does not recline back on your seat. The seat width is the standard 17.5 inches in Economy (0.5 inch lesser than current Air India planes), while Business class passengers enjoy 20 inches and passengers in First class enjoy 29.5 inches.
Which are these airframes?
The six airframe in question are MSN 39686 (A6-ETK, 11 year old), MSN 39687 (A6-ETL, 10.8 year old), MSN 39688 (A6-ETM, 10.7 year old), MSN 39689 (A6-ETN, 10.4 year old) and the recently delivered VT-AER (ex A6-ETR, MSN 41701, 9.8 year old).
Due to operational reasons with the ex-Delta aircraft, they cannot be deployed out of Delhi where they operated for a longer period over the Hindukush without immediate alternate airports. It remains to be seen if the ex-Etihad aircraft also have such restrictions or not.
These airframes will help the airline plan expansion and also cater to refurbishment of its older planes. The ex-Delta, ex-Etihad and ex-Singapore Airline aircraft are short term fixes till the airline renews its fleet with the A350 and B787s. Since most of these aircraft were destined for scrap and parted out, Air India would have got some lucrative lease deals on these planes. Additionally, the lessor would be happy to extend the short term lease further if Air India wishes to at a later date.
Network Thoughts
The airline is taking in far too many different configurations (More on that in the next article).
Across airlines, the newer aircraft typically come with an advanced inflight product with the older aircraft taking time to catch up or being retired in due course of time. With Air India, the issues are slightly different. The products are either inherited from the government owned Air India or dependent on what the earlier operators had be it Delta Air Lines, Etihad or Singapore Airlines. It is understandable in the current scenario of Supply Chain Constraints, but from a passenger perspective this is nothing short of a lucky draw!
Does the airline not know all this? Definitely they do, but the challenge lies somewhere else. There is an opportunity like no other, primarily due to the war in Europe, and would you want to sit idle for lack of product standardisation or make the most of the current scenario? The obvious answer is “make the most of the current scenario”.
There are few routes which are literally crying for capacity, I would rank flights to London Heathrow from Delhi and Mumbai at the top of these and I won’t be surprised if these aircraft get deployed to London.
I came across a few videos of the seats in this video captures both Business and Economy class seats.
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London routes are overwhelmed with competition with low yields. Just like the author all sheep heads think alike. Air India needs a multi hub destination rotation strategy focusing on DEL as transit hub. That’s the only way to get 90+ load factors. Australia routes need 4 more B788 planes to offer DEL-SYD/MEL-BOM-SYD/MEL-DEL. This type of destination rotation allows all Europe/UK -Australia/Singapore/Bangkok at DEL with
less than 3 hr transit both ways while improving P2P at other hubs. Just focusing on LHR gives 70-80 load factors mainly catering P2P with low yields. Think out of the box to become global player using regional advantages of multiple cities.
Moving the London flights to 77W will free up those much needed 787s to expand Australia ops either from Mumbai or additional freq from Delhi, helping two-way connections to EU /UK flights
The ideal will be Mumbai addition but european bank does not exist from Mumbaj yet