Class wars: Air India plans premium makeover to extend luxury lead over IndiGo

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Air India doesn’t seem content with adding Vistara’s business class seats to its overall range of premium services. The Tata Sons-owned full-service carrier is now expanding its business class and premium economy offerings to about 100 narrowbody aircraft to strengthen its lead over IndiGo in the race for passengers willing to pay more for a comfortable flying experience.

Currently, Air India has 62 narrowbody aircraft featuring all three class configurations—business, premium economy, and economy. These include business class seats from the erstwhile Vistara, the Tata group’s premium full-service airline that was merged with Air India in November. Air India is currently refurbishing 27 of its legacy A320 narrowbody aircraft with new seats and interiors along with the three-class configuration, a person familiar with the airline’s plans told Mint.

“With the retrofit exercise (set to) complete by mid-year, Air India will deploy an additional 50,000 premium seats every week on metro-to-metro routes," this person said, declining to be identified. Air India’s three-class configuration on its narrowbody fleet features eight business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 132 economy seats. On widebody aircraft, Air India also has a first-class section.

Currently, Air India has premium seating in 86 aircraft, which includes 24 widebody aircraft and 62 narrowbody aircraft. Overall, the airline deploys nearly 80,000 premium seats (including first class, business class, and premium economy) weekly within India. Of these, around 47,000 premium seats are deployed on metropolitan routes.