Mumbai: As part of its reconfiguration exercise, Air India is evaluating a plan to drop first-class seats in its long-haul Boeing 777 planes. The airline flies these wide-body planes to the US, Europe, China, Japan, Korea and Saudi Arabia.
It has 12 Boeing 777-300 ERs and eight 777-200 LRs. For some time, the airline has been trying to sell or lease five of the latter model of aircraft but has found no takers. This is because the aircraft’s current seat configuration is not ideal for medium-haul routes and makes those commercially unviable to operate.
Air India’s Boeing 777-200 LRs have 238 seats, including eight first-class ones (8+35+195), while the 300-ERs have 342 seats, four of those first-class (4+35+303).
Another reason for the airline to consider reconfiguration is the poor first-class occupancy.
27/03/13 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
