IndiGo, India’s largest airline by fleet and domestic market share, announced its plans to have a business class on select business and busiest routes by the end of the year in May. Celebrating its 18th birthday in style, the airline unveiled the business class seats to a select audience in the national capital. Its shift from a pure play LCC to hybrid carrier now seems to be a step ahead, as it organised the function at Pragati Maidan.
The airline will add 12 business class seats to its A321neo and reduce the economy seats to 208. IndiGo’s A321neo are configured with 222 or 232 seats currently, depending on the configuration. The roll out will happen before the end of the year, and much like Air India’s roll out of three-class A320 on select flights across select routes, IndiGo will also do the same, replacing frequencies as and when needed.
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The IndiGo business class seat will be from Recaro – which already is a seat supplier to IndiGo. The R5 seat of IndiGo includes numerous storage options and the two-part tray-table. Thanks to its advanced design, it does not need to be stowed in the centre console if the passenger wants to get up. Working instruments and devices can remain on the table during this time. The seat also offers charging – something which is new for IndiGo passengers. IndiGo’s seats will offer a pitch of 38 inches. The airline will also have a different seats in economy on these 45 aircraft.
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The flights for sale tomorrow and are operational from November 14, 2024. Special menu is being curated with the Oberoi group.
Competition
As Vistara merges with Air India, there will be one full service carrier in the country. Air India’s business class seats are from Rockwell Collins, MiQ business class seats – same as that of Vistara’s second lot.
Air India’s new business class product features eight seats, offering 40 inches seat pitch and 7 inch recline. It also has a leg rest, footrest and movable armrest along with a 4-way adjustable headrest. The tray table (which folds in the armrest) is extendable and the seat includes a PED (Personal Electronic Device) holder. There are USB charging ports and also AC power outlets. Vistara also has the same seats on offer. Vistara’s A320neo aircraft come with enhanced operational performance and cabin features that include in-seat AC Power Outlet, USB Charging Ports and PED (Personal Electronic Device) holders.
Vistara’s A321neo comes with 12 lie-flat seats from Collins Aerospace. It is a luxurious offering with a 63 inch seat pitch, bed length of 84 inches, width of 20.05 inches, a reading light, charging and more along with a monitor for IFE.
Interestingly, two other carriers are offering Business class seats in Indian skies. Air India Express which has been inducting white tail MAX 8 which are in dual class as they were intended for other carriers (mostly Chinese). They come without standardisation on either the seat or the seat cover and have a different LOPA (Layout of Passenger Amenities). Akasa Air also took white tails in the past and that means it too has former Jet Airways aircraft which were configured in dual class. The airline had started a reconfiguration but it is not yet complete and there continue to be aircraft which are in dual class. While Air India Express started by selling the front cabin as an enhanced economy offering and later converted it to a full Business class offering, Akasa Air continues to sell it as frills with Economy branding it as A++ seats.
IndiGo’s offering will see a recline which is lesser than Air India, a pitch which is smaller than Air India. The pet peeve will still lack a full service offering with hot meals and a multi course meal. With the country becoming more and more aware about food choices, how IndiGo will solve this challenge needs to be seen. The special offering is thus being looked at closely when it goes live in November.
Oven the pet peeve
As IndiGo offers business class on select routes in the second half of the year, lack of ovens leading to unavailability of hot meals on board will remain the pet peeve. The reason for not having the oven when it began operations was different. An airline with exactly the same type of aircraft and its benefits is an argument which is now stale. With even the Inflight streaming being trialled out, multiple fleet types, multiple hubs, codeshares, interlines, transfer traffic – not having an oven is the only LCC legacy that it now carries.
Tail Note
IndiGo now joins the airlines which have created complex market dynamics. It all started with Kingfisher and Jet Airways which started offering a full service and a low cost offering and complicating the offering in the markets. Then came Vistara with a three class offering and all economy offering, sometimes operating on the same route at different times of the day.
It is laudable for IndiGo to have managed to secure as many seats in the middle of global supply chain constraints. The airline continuously moves its goal post ahead, when it’s about to achieve its goal and so far the going has been good. With the loyalty program coming up, it’s a new pitch to play with goal posts which are different. How will IndiGo perform?