New Delhi: Government-owned Air India has begun changing the configuration of a substantial number of its short-haul aircraft to all-economy seats.
Of the 62 Airbus-320 family of aircraft, AI has started converting 14 to single-class configuration and to decrease the number of business-class seats in 43 others from 20 seats per aircraft to 12.
“We have already converted one of the aircraft to single configuration and the conversion of others is in process. These will be operated in connecting smaller cities that do not have any business class traffic and the business class seats go empty,” said a senior AI official, who did not wish to be identified. “We will be able to increase our capacity (with this) by at least 10 per cent. This will help us in increasing our revenue in sectors where business class seats have no takers.”
The domestic market currently offers around 10 per cent inventory in business class and the rest in the economy category. It has seen a decline in business class seats due to curtailment of flights by Kingfisher Airlines and addition of capacity by various low-cost carriers. Domestic airlines provide a little over 200,000 seats a day. Till six months earlier, 15 per cent of the inventory was business class.
07/04/12 Mihir Mishra/Business Standard
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