What A 340 Offers Air India
Airbus Industries A 340 offers Air India a genuine medium capacity long-range airliner, which has the ideal size and range to compliment Air Indias fleet of Airbus A 300s, A 310s and Boeing 747s.
The A 340 is the right size of aircraft with seating for some 240-270 passengers in three classes, depending on the version, it is neither too large nor too small, thus fitting nicely between the A 300/A310 and the Boeing 747. Getting the right match of capacity to traffic on its routes is crucial to any airline -- an aircraft that is too small means lost passengers, while one that is too large will have many empty seats and be unprofitable or, worse still, lose money.
Air Indias MCLR requirement calls for an airliner that, in addition to providing long-haul flights from the key cities of Delhi and Mumbai, will also serve Calcutta and Chennai. This makes commercial sense, since passengers increasingly want non-stop flights, with shorter flying times and no time consuming intermediate stops or plane-changes en route. The A 340 closely satisfies this need, offering Air India an airliner of reasonable size that can readily be filled with a profitable load of passengers, together with very long range.
The size of the A 340 also gives it a greater proportion of profitable high-yield passengers, paying first and business class fares. This is because the number of first and business class passengers on a given route, in a given period, tends to be constant. If therefore, an aircraft carrying first, business and economy passengers is compared with a larger one, then the size of the first and business class sections will be unchanged. Instead, the extra capacity is all added in the low-yield economy section, from which any contribution to profitability is marginal, at best, and may even prove to be a loss. The A 340 thus offers a better chance of profitability.
Having been uncompromisingly designed for long range, the A 340 is the only airliner that offers Air India the ability to fly non-stop to the USA - an important market for the airline, currently served via stops in Europe. In fact, the A 340 is the first brand-new long haul aircraft to be designed in more than 25 years. The A 340 can fly non-stop from Delhi to Los Angeles, and from Mumbai to New York. Research suggests that when an airline introduces new non-stop services, it enjoys a marketing advantage -- the passenger always wants to get there quicker with the fewest stops -- and that this advantage persists, even after its competitors eventually catch up. the A 340 offers Air India this advantage.
Of course, as airline authorities introduce more and more non-stop long haul flights, passenger comfort is increasingly important. In addition to a spacious cabin, the A 340 offers passengers in all classes the key feature that most of them request -- an aisle or window seat. In first and business class, every single passenger has an aisle or window seat and even in economy, full three quarters of passengers have these seats. No other airliner in the MCLR category offers this advantage.
Boredom is the enemy of the long distance traveller, with more and more airlines responding with sophisticated inflight passenger entertainment. The trend is towards providing all first and business class passengers with their own personal video-screens, typically with a choice of programmes to view and, sometimes, with other features such as telephones and video-games. Some airlines have even gone as far as providing individual screens for each economy class passenger, so that everyone has a choice of entertainment. The A 340 was the first airliner designed from the outset to provide for this new inflight entertainment era.
The spaciousness of the A 340 fuselage also confers an advantage that most passengers are unaware of, which is its ability to carry large amounts of cargo - in addition to passengers bags - in industry standard containers such as the LD3. The A 340 carries more cargo than the competing MCLR aircraft and with cargo providing a useful contribution to Air Indias profitability, offers another worthwhile advantage.
Another feature of the A 340 is its new generation cockpit and flying qualities, which it shares with the A 330 and the A 320 family. Similarities in cockpit layout and how the aircraft flies mean valuable savings in pilot training - and thus represent a way to reduce operational costs. With synergy being sought from closer co-operation between Air India and Indian Airlines - a major a 320 operator - the shared cockpits of the A 330/A 340 and A 320 families have the potential to deliver savings in a way that no competing aircraft can. Pilots can also benefit through more widespread career prospects, less re-training when they move from one aircraft to another, and greater variety in the routes that they fly. n