Over the previous few days, a number of viral reels, movies, and posts have surfaced on social media, expressing issues in regards to the high quality of plane offered by Air India. A current incident concerned a passenger who paid ₹4.5 lakh for a journey from Canada to Delhi on considered one of Air India’s B777s, highlighting complaints about seat consolation and the general situation of facilities. In December, one other passenger flying from Mumbai to Melbourne on Air India’s newly launched service raised a number of issues, encompassing each the {hardware} and software program facets of the airline’s choices.

A cursory have a look at social media reveals that it is stuffed with complaints, particularly within the financial system class which vary from damaged seats, remotes not working and damaged, IFE screens not operational on the laborious product aspect together with cleanliness and repair complaints. An attention-grabbing statement from the grievance reveals that those within the entrance cabin have gone down drastically whereas these in financial system class appear to be on the rise.

This comes amidst the backdrop of Air India’s first A350 touching down in India within the final week of 2023 and gearing up for home operations beginning January 22. As the Tatas strategy the second anniversary of taking on Air India, when will the legacy fleet get its due and what’s holding it again?

Why the complaints?

When the Tata group took management of Air India, it discovered itself with a number of planes being grounded for lack of upkeep which was a results of lack of funds. As the group began pumping cash and getting planes operational, it first began returning to its earlier locations adopted by growing frequency to these locations, additional adopted by including new hyperlinks like that to Melbourne from Mumbai.

The seats and IFE within the airplane are previous and the provision chain points together with years of poor upkeep have meant that they don’t seem to be in the perfect of form. The Tata’s have labored with their group corporations to even have 3D printed supplies substitute conventional elements which aren’t out there both resulting from provide chain points or suppliers shutting down or the primary seat not in use any extra. However, there stay points with IFE which can’t be repaired or the drain is an excessive amount of to restore for a brief interval.

When can one count on a change?

Air India can be investing US $400 million to fully refurbish the interiors of its legacy fleet of 43 widebody plane. These 43 embrace the 27 B787s and 16 B777s. The refurbishment is slated to begin in mid-2024. It will encompass the set up of brand-new seats in each cabin, new inflight leisure programs and inflight Wi-Fi web connectivity.

The whole train is predicted to be over by the tip of 2025, which suggests there can be over 2 plane which can begin popping out refurbished in the direction of the second half of this yr. By March of 2024, the airline expects 33% of the widebody fleet to be upgraded. This means it might see six A350s (one is in India), 5 B77Ls which earlier operated for Delta (all are operational) and the B77Ws coming from Etihad and Singapore Airlines.

Why can’t there be another choice?

The laborious product enchancment might have its limitations however points with cleanliness are unpardonable if Air India goals to be a world-class airline. In circumstances the place there are complaints of damaged cables of remotes and remotes not working, it in all probability is sensible to make the seat “in-operative” and never assign it at check-in. One wonders if this might trigger loads of seats to be in-operative and the viability of the route being questioned on the deployment of such planes.

There usually is an argument that passengers are additionally to be blamed for the soiled cabins and cleanliness, which undoubtedly is true however the passengers will not be altering in a single day and thus the airline must have a mechanism in place to make sure cleaner planes.

Air India needs to change into a premium service

The B777-300ER (referred to as B77W) going for refurbishment, will in all chances coincide with its heavy upkeep cycles. The airline has 13 of these in its fleet and does loads of heavy lifting amongst its routes with flights primarily to North American locations, barring the lengthy flights to San Francisco that are operated by the B777-200LR. Currently, the plane is configured with 4 First-class suites, 35 Business class seats that are organized in 2-3-2 seating (7 abreast, 5 rows) and 303 financial system class seats that are 9 abreast. Air India launched a video of a render of how the refurbishment would look and an in depth have a look at it reveals how the brand new LOPA (Layout of Passenger Amenities) is more likely to be.

The premium financial system on the B777s can be eight abreast seating with 5 rows, a complete of 40 seats. The airline will even proceed with one row of First class seats or 4 seats, precisely the identical as now. The enterprise class cabins will get doorways, giving extra privateness and probably fewer peegate incidents! The format appears to shift from 2-3-2 to 1-2-1, with staggered seating for window seat passengers. There is also a marginal improve within the capability of the enterprise class. The spotlight right here is the elimination of the “middle seat” in enterprise class. While the center seat will not be a most well-liked seat for anybody, it is routinely the least most well-liked in a premium cabin. Currently, the B77Ws have 303 financial system class seats. With the rise in seats in Business class and the addition of premium financial system, there may very well be area left for about 250-260 seats. However, it will include decreased width of the seat. The present cabin comes with a seat width of 18 inches and a seat pitch of 31 to 33 inches. The width is more likely to go right down to 17.05 inches.

The query now could be how premium pricing can Air India command if cleanliness stays a problem?

Ameya Joshi is an aviation analyst.