A post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) by fellow avgeek and reputed lawyer Nitin Sarin, wondering about the availability of FIRST class for non-stop flights between Delhi and London triggered my curiosity. India has been a mass market all along and even as FTAs (Foreign Tourist Arrivals) are lower than pre-pandemic, Indian’s traveling abroad has fuelled new flights, occupancy and growth between India and countries in the region as well as the Europe and North America.
Air India, plans to continue having a FIRST offering in its fleet after reconfiguration going by the plans it had shared in the past. The airline has encountered multiple problems and what was suppose to end by now, is yet to begin – the reconfiguration! With a local airline deciding to continue having FIRST, there must be some traffic which is worth tapping or upgrading. Where is this traffic flying currently?
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Since Air India has curtailed the schedule this month, and a typical lean season sees some downgrades in capacity and aircraft type, I relied on schedule for November the first full month of operations in Winter schedule. The schedule is shared by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this blog post.
There are only 3592 First class seats on offer each week, or 0.2% of total international seats on offer to and from India for a week. This translates toroughly 250 seats per day to and from India in the First cabin.
Where and which airlines are flying First from India?
Unsurprisingly, Emirates remains the largest carrier out of India to offer First class, followed by home carrier Air India.
Which sectors offer first class?
The answer hands-down is Dubai, since Emirates is the largest carrier offering First from India. Understandably, Indian’s dont fly to Dubai in First but onwards via Dubai on Emirates.
Clearly, Mumbai the financial capital has a lead like no other with Bengaluru becoming a strong third in line with its rise as a hub. Hyderabad and Chennai are tied with Kolkata just behind.
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BOM-LHR has 40 (32+8) seats but LHR-BOM has 24 (16+8) seats
Are we missing something here? Or is it like that?