Air India is one of only two major airlines in India that operates full-service flights both domestically and internationally. And while it deploys its bigger Dreamliners and Boeing 777s to long-haul routes, a bulk of its flights within India and to medium-haul international destinations are carried out by the smaller A320 family aircraft. And many of these services are about to get additional cabin crew.

Photo: BoeingMan777 | Shutterstock

Additional cabin crew on some flights

Air India is ready to restore a “full service-based complement of cabin crew” on its narrowbody planes that fly on metro-to-metro routes and international flights. One of the key factors that differentiates Air India’s product is its full-service flights compared to budget carriers, even on domestic sectors. This includes premium cabins on its narrowbody planes. Business Standard had access to a message sent by Air India CEO Campbell Wilson to employees, which said,

“On the cabin crew front, our recruitment and training teams have done a great job in recent months of onboarding new colleagues. Thanks to their efforts, and notwithstanding our ongoing growth, we'll be restoring a full service-based complement of cabin crew on our narrowbody international and domestic metro-to-metro flights from September 1.

“As even more new crew enter the system we will be restoring the full service-based complement on all other flights too, subject to load factors.”

Narrowbody fleet and network

Per ch-aviation, Air India has a total of 122 aircraft, of which 74 are narrowbody Airbus A320 family of jets. Many of these planes were grounded before the Tata Group took over the airline, but over the last year and a half, quite a few grounded narrowbodies have been fixed, and some new ones have also been inducted.

Photo: Nicolas Economou/Shutterstock

Air India’s single-aisle planes operate the bulk of its domestic and short-to-medium-haul flights. The airline tries to focus more on metro-to-metro routes, which are perennially high in demand, and also see many business travelers and those that book premium cabins.

Many of its flights to the Middle East and Southeast Asia also fall within the range of these jetliners and are carried out by the A320 family jets. According to data by Cirium, Air India will operate more than 1,400 return flights in September alone to destinations such as Dubai, Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and Doha, among many others.

More to come

Of course, Air India’s fleet is expected to swell massively as it awaits 470 aircraft on order from both Airbus and Boeing. Much of that order comprises narrowbody planes, including 190 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that will go to Air India Express and 140 A320neos and 70 A321neos that will strengthen Air India’s short-to-medium haul network.

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Source: Business Standard