Tata-owned Air India began commercial operations of its first wide-body aircraft A350 on Monday, taking off from Mumbai airport to Chennai. The 316-seat A350-900 aircraft features a three-class cabin configuration with 28 private business suites with full-flat beds, 24 premium economy and 264 economy seats.
“Air India flight AI-589 took off from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport to Chennai on Monday with full passenger capacity,” the airline said in a statement. The aircraft will initially fly on domestic routes of Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai to familiarize the crew and ensure regulatory compliance.
Later, it will be used for long-haul flights to destinations on all continents and will strengthen Air India's growing wide-body fleet of owned and recently leased aircraft, the airline said.
Flight AI 589, which departed on time from Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, carried almost all the passengers who were eager to experience the revamped Air India.
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The first of Air India's 20 owned Airbus A350-900 aircraft, registered VT-JRA, arrived at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport late last month from Airbus' manufacturing facility in Toulouse, France.
The addition of the A350 to Air India's fleet is part of the order for 470 new aircraft that the airline placed early last year. Air India will purchase 40 A350s, 20 each of the A350-900 and A350-1000, as well as 140 narrow-body A321neo and 70 A320neo jets under its revised 250-aircraft contract with Airbus.
Recently, Akasa Air ordered 150 Boeing 737 MAX narrowbody aircraft to expand its domestic and international reach. The company announced this during the Wings India event in Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, Darren Hulst, Boeing's vice president (VP) of commercial marketing, said India needs to deliver more than 2,500 new aircraft by 2042. India will need more than 92 percent of the 2,705 or over 2,500 aircraft by 2042. These figures are based on the forecast given in the middle of last year, he added. “We estimate that airlines here (South Asia including India) will need more than 2,700 aircraft deliveries by 2042,” Hulst said; If you add a similar fleet composition with more than 2,300 individual ships, almost 400 wide-body aircraft would be required for long-haul flights.
