AI Express, Akasa Air rip premium seats even as no-frills IndiGo adds business class

Mumbai: Barely months after IndiGo set an aspirational tone for domestic low-cost airlines with plans to offer business class luxury, Akasa Air and Air India Express are discarding the premium seats they had inherited as they seek to improve operational efficiency.

Akasa Air, India’s newest airline that was co-founded by the late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, has already replaced premium seats on most of its fleet of two-dozen aircraft with regular economy seats, and expects to complete the process by October, a senior executive said.

Air India Express has started a similar retrofitting process, diverging from market leader IndiGo’s bet that passengers will be willing to pay a premium to travel business class even in low-cost airlines.

Akasa Air and Air India Express had inherited the business class seats on Boeing 737 Max aircraft that were tailored to the specifications of Chinese airlines that dropped their orders following fatal crashes involving the US-made planes. A trade war between the US and China is believed to have aided this decision.

“We never offered those seats as business class anyway," said Praveen Iyer, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Akasa, which offered an upgrade to passengers who could pay extra for the larger seats with more legroom.

While Akasa Air was pricing its premium seats at ₹3,500 over and above its regular fare, Air India Express tagged its business class seats at about ₹16,000 in the Delhi-Mumbai sector. That’s still lower than the ₹26,000 charged by its parent entity, the Tata Group-owned full service Air India, for a business class seat on the same route.

“We would have replaced these business class seats earlier itself if these replacements were available earlier," a senior Air India Express executive said on condition of anonymity. “The seats were not available due to supply chain issues and are available now. We have started to replace the seats on the aircraft now and will soon be able to replace it on all of them."

Air India Express did not respond toMint’s email sent on Thursday evening.

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Reducing complexities

Aviation experts said that the decision of Air India Express and Akasa Air to chuck the premium seats aligns with the business philosophies of these two airlines. Having just one tier of customers reduces complexities, helping them maintain low cost of operations, they said.

“Both the carriers are no-frills. So it makes sense that they want to have their entire cabins completely economy," said Ajay Prakash, president of Travel Agents Federation of India.

Akasa Air has 24 aircraft and is set to induct one more shortly. All its aircraft are Boeing 737 MAX and have the same engine to standardize crew. It has more than 200 additional aircraft on order with Boeing, which will be inducted through 2030.

Air India Express has 80 aircraft, of which 52 are Boeing 737 and Boeing 737 MAX. The rest are Airbus A320s.

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While these low-cost carriers are focusing on consolidating their operations towards economy, IndiGo’s entry into business class has divided India’s aviation industry on whether consumers of budget airlines will pay for business class facilities.

IndiGo has announced plans to launch business class seats on its Airbus A321 aircraft.

Set to begin in November on the Delhi-Mumbai sector, IndiGo’s business class, called IndiGo Stretch, offers an introductory price of ₹18,018. IndiGo’s regular fare for this route in November is about ₹4,000.

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