Air India Express to phase out business class cabin on its ‘white-tail’ aircraft starting next year | Business News
Air India group’s low-cost airline Air India Express has decided to phase out business class seats, which are available on a number of its “white-tail” Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, and plans to refit all such planes to an all-economy configuration starting next year, according to a senior airline official.
Although the airline, like numerous budget carriers globally, has traditionally operated all-economy cabins, it has around 20 aircraft (of total 84) that came with two cabin classes—economy and business. The business class product is available only on these aircraft. These planes were ordered by and configured for some other airlines but the manufacturer—Boeing in this case—offered them to Air India Express as the original orders were cancelled.
Such planes—that remain unsold to the intended customer—are referred to as white-tail aircraft in industry parlance. Often, other airlines are quick to buy such aircraft as they are readily available off the shelf with the manufacturer, while planes manufactured based on their order can take years to be delivered.
So far, Air India Express has inducted 33 white-tail Boeing 737 MAX planes, which were originally meant for other airlines, mainly Chinese carriers. Another 17 such aircraft are likely to join the fleet by the end of this year. Of these 33, around 20 planes came with a two-class cabin. Some of the remaining 17 white-tail planes might also have a dual-class cabin configuration.
“Having a business class on a part of our fleet really does not fit well with our business model. We have been offering a premium product on these white-tails mainly because the planes already came with business class seats and we wanted to press them into operations at the earliest, instead of spending too much time on reconfiguring the cabin,” said the official, who did not wish to be identified.
With the airline’s fleet continuously growing at a steady pace, it should have some headroom in a few months’ time to start converting such aircraft to all-economy seating. Cabin reconfiguration can be a time-consuming process and keep the aircraft out of operation for some time. Therefore, the refit schedule needs to be planned carefully so that it does not affect the airline’s operations.
These white-tail Boeing 737 MAX planes are part of the mammoth 470-aircraft order the Air India group placed with Boeing and Airbus last year. The order included 190 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft—50 white-tails and 140 that will be manufactured based on the order. Deliveries of the remaining 140 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to start from sometime next year.
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Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India), which is in the process of being merged into the former, currently have a combined fleet of 84 aircraft, mostly Boeing 737s and a few Airbus A320s. With another 17 white-tail planes expected to join the fleet before the end of the year, the operational fleet of the merged Air India Express is expected at 100 aircraft by December-end, said the airline official. By 2028, Air India Express aims to have a fleet of 180 aircraft.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
