Air India to remove first class from long-range jets
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Air India will remove the first class cabins from its fleet of long-haul Boeing 777 aircraft, it has been revealed.
The Economic Times reports that the national carrier has decided to do away with the eight first class seats on its Boeing 777-200LR (long-range) jets, due to “low occupancy”.
Citing “airline sources”, the business newspaper said that the airline is selling on average just two of the eight first class seats available.
“We have seen just about 25% occupancy in the first class cabin, while the same for business class has picked [up] by 30-35%,” the anonymous source was quoted saying. “Therefore we have decided to operate the flight in [a] two-class configuration, removing first class seats and adding more in the economy cabin.”
The aircraft currently has a capacity of 238 passengers in three classes, but the reconfiguration is expected to increase this to 298 seats in two cabins – 35 in business class and 260 in economy.
Air India operates its three B777-200LRs on the new Delhi-San Francisco route, which commenced last month.
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