Weekend Musings: The joy of multiple aircraft types

Edition 46

Air India, now a Tata enterprise, has gradually deputed the ex-Etihad B77Ws to London Heathrow from Mumbai. This helped replace the 787-8 Dreamliner which the airline traditionally operated in this sector. What has this led to? An upgraded product, upgraded capacity and more importantly a new class of service – First class on the route, which is by far the most “in-demand” point to point route from India. While all of this is true, the biggest benefit of this bump up has been an increase in capacity by Air India by 29% just by changing the aircraft type which will help it get additional market share on the route and out of India. 

The increase is disproportionate across classes and rightly so. The 787 has 18 Business and 238 Economy class seats, a total of 256. With the Boeing 777s, there will be four first class cabins (a new class for Air India on the route), 40 Business class seats (2.2 times) and 280 economy class seats (17% more). With a revamped service, menu and offering – clearly the focus is business class. Given a choice, Air India – even in the sarkari days – would have opted for the B777s to London, but there were none to spare. 

This deployment helps have better capacity share on the Mumbai – London route, especially after the pullout of Vistara. In July,  British Airways offered 16 First class seats Daily, 119 Business class, 103 premium economy and 408 economy seats per day. Virgin Atlantic, which has announced double daily operations to Mumbai starting with WInter, will offer 31 Business, 35 premium economy and 192 economy class seats, while Air India will offer 8 first, 80 business and 560 economy class seats per day. 

Air India may have a mixed fleet right now, but a mixed fleet when used effectively can do wonders. That effectively is a fine blend of Sales, Revenue Management, Pricing and Planning. Can Air India pull it off? Currently yes. The real use of mixed fleet type is when you adjust the equipment based on demand for a week or a month or a short period. The answer will be known in future. This deployment always makes me wonder if there remains room for a smaller jet for Air India? 

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