Air India is starting to get its mojo back despite bad press

Air India might be making news for the wrong reasons but what has gone ignored is its steady rise in the international sectors, especially with the widebody deployment, to the extent that it feels like the airline is firing on most cylinders, if not all. With Vistara in tow, it moves towards its multi-year plan of being a significant player in the global market and reaching its past glory.

Its strategy has been three-pronged; the first focuses on getting the grounded aircraft back in the air, the second being inducting planes from the open market and the third the new planes on order. While a steady flow of new widebody planes is yet to start and only six A350s, which were earlier destined for Aeroflot, have been inducted, the airline has made significant changes to its schedule this winter.

Data shared by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that Air India is adding 162 weekly international departures this December as compared to the previous December. This leads to 37,504 additional seats each way between India and foreign destinations. A significant portion of this is due to the addition of Vistara into its fold. Vistara flights will operate under ‘AI’ code starting November 12 with the merger.

Also Read: Air India reschedules Mumbai-NY flight on October 15 after bomb scare threat

The airline still pales against IndiGo’s expansion which it did in the recent past with flights to Central Asia, Indonesia, Kenya and announcements of flights to Mauritius. The airline has said that it would add seven new international destinations by March next year, two of which are now announced (Jaffna and Mauritius). For December, the peak of winter, IndiGo would operate to 34 International destinations, while Air India would operate to 41. This does not include those of Air India Express. These numbers could well change in the next few weeks.

Frequency updates and equipment upgrades

Air India is adding a frequency each per week on the Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, Amritsar-Birmingham, Bengaluru-London Gatwick, Delhi-Copenhagen, and Delhi-Newark routes.

Also Read: Air India Express shoring up capacity with airframes from Air India

The airline is increasing frequency by two flights a week to Milan from Delhi, doubling the frequency to Toronto from Delhi from current daily flights to double daily. The airline flies daily to Singapore from Bengaluru, which started as a four-times-a-week flight. Air India will also replace the 787-8 to Washington from Delhi with the B777-200LR and increase its frequency to five times a week from the current four. The increase will allow for higher cargo uplift and 166 more seats per week. This comes on the heels of Delhi-New York seeing the debut of the A350, replacing the B777-300ER.

With Vistara in tow, it already sees the doubling of frequency to Frankfurt and Paris from Delhi and offers new points in the network like Denpasar and Mauritius along with connectivity to Frankfurt and Paris from Mumbai.

On the Mumbai-New York route, the B777-300ER has taken over from the legacy-200LR sub-type, giving a better customer experience. Likewise, the former Etihad B777-300ER will do the honours between Mumbai and London Heathrow with the upgraded product replacing the legacy 787-8, adding a class of service on the premium route.

Widebody expansion yet to begin

The airline, which began services to Phuket, Kuala Lumpur, and Ho Chi Minh City from Delhi, is widely rumoured to start flights to Jakarta, Manila and Taipei within Asia. The flight numbers and timings of these have appeared on Delhi airport’s website in the past, indicating that the airline holds slots or has intentions to start. Similar information also appeared for Los Angeles.

The first phase saw Air India unground a couple of aircraft, which led to the starting of flights to Amsterdam and Zurich from Delhi and to Melbourne from Mumbai. The second phase was the induction of former Delta and former Etihad B777s, which led to flights to San Francisco from Mumbai and Bengaluru among others. The third phase is the international deployment of A350s. Now that these are in place and the refurbishment is delayed, it is time to utilise the aircraft freed up by these changes to add more flights and establish a stronger hub in Delhi.

Also Read: Air connectivity is spreading, but India has a long way to go

Tail Note

There will always be a sizable demand to fix the planes first before starting new routes. It is a fairly valid demand; however, one has to understand that the airline cannot come to a ground stop, repair everything and start again. The airline has reduced its losses in the last two years even as it continues investment in various things like a warehouse and MRO amongst others.

The airline has a massive challenge in front of itself, with the merger with Vistara and close coordination with Air India Express, apart from expansion and collaboration with Star Alliance partners and expansion. These additional frequencies and flights help offer more connections, increase utilisation and end up with higher revenue. WIth the airline saying that it has taken care of improving seats, the complaints should ideally go down at a unit level. All in all, the airline has started firing on the route network, though not all guns blazing, just yet.