Better late than never: Air India Express takes delivery of its 50th MAX aircraft | Company Business News-OxBig News Network

In September 2023, Air India Express took delivery of its first MAX 8 aircraft from Boeing. The airline was an all-Boeing 737 NG operator until then. The delivery was possible within months of announcing the acquisition in February 2023 and formally signing it in July the same year in Paris because these airframes were manufactured for other carriers, mostly Chinese, but weren’t taken up by their original owners amidst the global grounding of the MAX aircraft following two deadly crashes.

The airline is now taking delivery of the 50th MAX 8, registered VT-BWV. At the ceremony to unveil the new livery of Air India Express, the management had talked about adding 50 new aircraft in 15 months. As the last one makes its way from the United States to India, it eventually took 21 months for the 50th aircraft to be delivered.

Air India Express is four times its original size

In January 2022, when the Tata group took over Air India and Air India Express, the low-cost subsidiary, largely restricted to Gulf routes, had a fleet of 26 aircraft, all B737-800NGs. While the group has invested in merging its four airlines to form two airlines, one full service and one low cost, Air India Express has nearly quadrupled its fleet to cross 100 planes. The airline took nearly as many planes at the time of merger of AirAsia India into Air India Express, doubling the fleet. The airline also inducted planes from Air India, the parent entity. This includes A320neo and A321neo, which continue to be in the older Air India livery. A total of 50 planes have been delivered fresh from the factory, all being the MAX 8.

The airline’s next step will be two-pronged. The first is to convert its dual-class fleet with multiple LOPA (layout of passenger amenities) to a standard single-class offering. The second would see the airline phase out older planes, both Airbus and Boeing, and work towards having a fuel-efficient modern fleet, which will help it compete better with other low-cost carriers, starting with IndiGo.

Delays continue for the group

The machinist union at Boeing went on a strike last year, which lasted nearly two months. Not only were the deliveries impacted for those two months, it also had a cascading effect for a longer period, leading to a slippage of delivery schedule for all carriers. Air India Express became part of the delays, even though the airline has been taking delivery of the planes in the configuration meant for the original operator with the livery being painted in India.

The parent Air India has been continuously delayed with its timelines for refurbishment. The airline had initially planned to refurbish all its legacy aircraft by 2025, but the first of the widebody will go for refurbishment only now. The airline has made a stop- gap arrangement with the Boeing 777s getting new carpets among other things before the reconfiguration begins next year.

The delays have been attributed to supply chain constraints, but for an airline the size of Air India, it does not bode well to give multiple and repetitive guidance on the upgrades but not meet them. The supply chain constraints have been known across the aviation world and one then wonders if the announcements were genuine or not.

Tail Note

Air India Express primarily focused on international routes pre-privatisation. Since then, the merger of erstwhile AirAsia India meant that they inherited a plethora of routes on the domestic segments. The airline then took over another set of routes from parent Air India. The group strategy seems to focus on having rapid induction for Air India Express to take on IndiGo on select domestic and international routes where there is IndiGo monopoly currently and in essence be the monopoly breakers with the matured routes which can sustain three-class operations being with Air India, which will complete its fleet wide reconfiguration for the narrowbody aircraft over the course of the next few months.

This kind of growth was never seen by either Air India or Air India Express under government ownership. However, the event in Ahmedabad has dented the image of Air India and will take time to recover. When the demand picks up again post-October, the added capacity will be a boon for Air India Express. Better late than never!