A few minutes post mid-night, VT-BXA the first of the MAX 8 which was delivered to Air India Express took-off from Hyderabad and landed in Mumbai, tucked away in the Air India hanger in the dead of night to avoid its livery becoming public ahead of the brand reveal of Air India Express later today. A picture of the livery’s work in progress on the A320neo had already leaked on social media but it remains to be seen what the final livery is when it is unveiled later today.
As commercial operations start tomorrow, Air India Express will become the fourth airline in India to induct the MAX 8, and third active airline to operate (since Jet Airways ceased operations).
With hours to go for unveiling the livery and product details, the airline’s website and web booking engine is throwing some light on the product on offer. The website with the new branding went live a few days ago, which looked more of a soft launch of the new colours.
The product
Similar to Akasa Air – which was forced to choose a dual class configuration on some of its planes due to supply chain constraints and lack of seats in the market, Air India Express has received its first two aircraft which were destined for other carriers – in this case the Chinese ones. They come with two class configurations comprising 8 Business class and 168 economy class seats.
The airline is selling the flights as mono class, but the business class seats which are 2×2 seating are available at a fee of INR 4,500 per seat. The economy section has differential pricing with the first row seats available for INR 1,400; second row window seats at INR 1,400, aisle seats at INR 1,300 and middle seat at INR 1,200. Seat selection fees for selecting a standard seat varies from INR 600 to INR 200 per seat.
The combos for seat + meal and “Xpress” service continues with focus on hot meals on offer – something easily possible with ovens onboard unlike IndiGo.
Deployment
The aircraft will operate a positioning flight (open for sale) as IX5101 from Mumbai – T2 to Delhi – T3 with scheduled to depart at 0045 hours on Oct 19. Thereafter, flight tracking website Flightradar24 lists the aircraft to operate Delhi – Guwahati – Imphal – Guwahati – Delhi – Lucknow – Mumbai – Lucknow – Delhi rotation starting Oct 19.
The second aircraft (VT-BXD) is still in Hyderabad. The airline has already announced a spate of domestic expansions which includes flights to Trivandrum, Kannur and Mangalore from Bengaluru, progressively starting from the beginning of Summer schedule. The flights currently seem to be loaded with A320neo, though the airline does not show the aircraft type on its booking engine results. The deployment plans will be revised as more aircraft become available for operations and more of existing A320s of AirAsia India are taken up for rebranding. The AirAsia brand name is available for use until the next month, most – if not all of the aircraft have their AirAsia branding removed with planes in Red and White.
Network Thoughts
These are early days for the MAX 8 with Air India Express. There is a lot of work that needs to be done over the next few months towards integration of schedules, people and more on the AirAsia India – Air India Express integration side. Then there comes the issue of network segregation between the FSC and LCC airlines of the group. While the group decided to segregate a few routes based on offering, Delhi – Lucknow remains one where both operate. The same optimisation process saw AirAsia India vacating the Mumbai – Lucknow sector in February this year, only to have Air India Express operate now – an indication of how complex the decisions are and the challenge to stick to those decisions.
Later today, we would know what transpires with the product in detail and the livery in full. The airline got brickbats when the Air India livery was announced but many opinions changed when the first images of A350 in that new livery did the rounds online. In the case of Air India Express, the group has decided to opt for the livery being painted before the unveiling – a few hours from now.
What I keep wondering is if Air India Express will revert to all economy class when the seats are available or will the 8 seats up front become a standard? With Air India Express and Air India moving ahead with code share across routes and Air India having more focus on premium, is this the trump card to offer seamless connectivity or just a supply chain blip? The answer could lie in the reduction in CASK if 18 economy class seats replace the 8 business class ones.
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