Plan to become all-economy airline by April 2026: Air India Express CEO

Tata Group-owned airline, Air India Express, plans to become an all-economy airline by April next year, converting its 60-plane hangar that currently feature business and premium economy seats into an all-economy configuration, chief executive officer (CEO) Aloke Singh said on Friday.

 

It currently has 103 planes in its fleet. The airline aims to carry about 30 million passengers in 2025-26, roughly 50 per cent more year-on-year as the aircraft inducted in the latter part of 2024-25 will have their full impact in 2025-26, he explained. In the current financial year, the airline has added 37 planes to its fleet.

 

Singh said 45 of the 50 new aircraft that the airline has received from Boeing during the last two years are "white-tail" planes, which have front cabins (business class). 

 

A white-tail aircraft is a plane that has been built by the manufacturer but does not have a confirmed buyer at the time of completion. Airlines retrofit such aircraft to match their fleet standards, adjusting seating layouts based on their business plan.

 

The aforementioned 45 white-tail planes, along with about 10 aircraft transferred from Air India to Air India Express that have front cabins, will be sent for retrofit over the next year.

 

"We are going to standardise our cabins. The retrofit of all the planes will take about one year. We will become an all-economy airline by the beginning of 2026-27," Singh said.

 

He mentioned that while 37 planes were added to the fleet in 2024-25, the airline is expecting to add 15-odd planes in 2025-26. "Four out of 15 planes will be received from Air India. Rest 11 will either be white-tail planes or "line fit" aircraft (which are designed as per the buyer's configuration)," he added.

 

"A large part of capacity has come in the latter part of 2024-25. In 2025-26, we may not induct as many planes as this financial year, but the capacity's full effect can be seen in that time," he said.

 

Fewer inductions in 2025-26 is partly because of delays in delivery of new planes from aircraft makers. 

 

"However, these delivery delays are getting offset because of some of the transfers that we are doing within the group. Broadly, this is what we had envisaged," he explained.

 

"For the domestic market, the all-economy product is better served under the Air India Express model. So, aircraft that are already all-economy, or the ones which will be converted to all-economy, will be with Air India Express," he explained, adding that Air India's planes will have front cabins.

 

Addressing concerns over rising airfares, Singh asserted that Air India Express continues to offer highly competitive fares. "If you plan your travel smartly, you can get great bargains with the various schemes we are running," he said.

 

He added that while there will always be peak periods where demand exceeds capacity, there are also opportunities for passengers to find discounted fares.