Air India have a long and well-earned reputation for consistently delivering one of the worst long-haul business-class products of any international airline. Recognizing this, Air India's new management have committed to a long-term project to dig their way out of that hole.
I flew their new Airbus 350 last week, and the improvements they've already made are an early sign that better days may in fact lie ahead.
To illustrate Air India's problem, I'm writing this from my Air Canada pod on my flight home from Delhi, for which I happily paid quite a bit more to fly six extra hours Delhi-London-Vancouver on Air Canada, rather than fly Delhi-Vancouver direct in an old Air India 777, equipped with their old 2-3-2 angle-flat business class that ranks behind nearly any premium-economy product in the sky.
While I wasn’t willing to gamble my spinal health on Air India for a 14-hour long-haul, I was happy to roll the dice on a recent domestic hop from Bangalore to Delhi, to get a first look at the “new” Air India. Let's look ahead:
1. Background
Background
After many years of politicized and turbulent management by several governments, Air India were privatized in 2023 to Indian corporate giant Tata, who soon unveiled a five-year turnaround plan called “Vihaan”, a Sanskrit reference to the dawn of a new era. It’s a detailed strategy to modernize and substantially grow the Air India fleet, along with major improvements to on-time performance, hard product and customer experience.
It’s an ambitious plan, to be sure, and to Tata’s credit they’ve launched the campaign with a refreshingly honest acknowledgement that nothing short of total revolution is likely to erase customers’ memories years of shoddy, broken angle-flat seats, consistently-dirty cabins and poorly-executed soft product.
The Road Ahead
Core to the “Vihaan” plan is a huge fleet expansion – nearly 400 new aircraft already on order will nearly triple the size of the Air India fleet – along with hiring thousands of new cabin crew and pilots.
While Air India have over 70 new widebodies on order, actual delivery will take years, as will the refit of existing aircraft with updated cabins and seating, so in the short term they’ve also been buying/leasing aircraft from other airlines.
Their first six A350s were originally destined for Russian carrier Aeroflot, and are configured with Aeroflot’s choice of the Collins Aerospace Horizon business suite; they’ve also picked up five Boeing 777LR from Delta, currently configured with the excellent Delta One business-class product (Thompson Aero Vantage XL), as well as six 777-300ER from Etihad Airways in that airline’s older “Pearl” business configuration (Stelia Solstys).
This does lead to a confusing assortment of seat types and seat maps - for example, Air India currently lists four separate layouts for the 777 alone - which could be a real headache during equipment swaps, but it does mean that a quarter of the widebody fleet is now running some form of newer, pod-style business seat in a 1-2-1 layout.
Okay, with all that corporate-strategy and capital-expenditure stuff out of the way, let’s head to the airport!
Booking The Flights / Airport Experience
This was a cash booking, and we were fortunate that our flight time matched one of the few times a week when Air India runs a widebody on Bangalore-Delhi, as most of those flights operate on narrowbody Airbus 320s with a standard 2-2 recliner-style business class.
When booked in advance the cost difference between Economy Lowest and Business was about $450 CAD / 26,500 INR. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can also wait until check-in, at which point a bid-upgrade offer might go for one-third of that price.
Bangalore’s newly-opened Terminal 2 is absolutely stunning, with design themes paying tribute to India’s natural beauty and architectural history. The terminal hosts nearly all international flights to and from BLR, as well as all of Air India / Vistara’s domestic travel.
Security was incredibly strict, I can't recall any other airport where I've been sent to secondary inspection for failing to send my house keys through the scanner separately for closer inspection. Allow extra time for this part of the process.
Our business-class booking included lounge access, but on our rush-hour departure the lineup outside the lounge was so long we didn’t even try, opting for a quick coffee and a short walk to the gate.
Boarding was quick and efficient, and we found ourselves in a business cabin about two-thirds full.
On Board / The Seat
This flight was operated by one of the ex-Aeroflot A350s, featuring the Collins Aerospace Horizon business suite. Air India have done a partial refresh of the cabin towards their own branding, but they’ve opted to keep the existing seating and cabin layout for the time being.
The seat is top-tier, on par with nearly any world-class carrier’s best long-haul product. I wouldn’t go quite so far as to match it up against ANA’s spectacular “The Room” suite, or possibly Qatar Q-Suites, but it’ll hold its own with pretty much anything else.
The suite is roomy, comfortable and private, with a sliding door that probably feels more private on a dark overnight than it did on our two-hour morning hop. There’s plenty of storage for headphones, tablets, chargers etc, as well as a surprisingly large-for-an-airline-seat closet to hang a suit jacket or small overcoat.
The tray table is large and solid-feeling, and together with a spacious side table, I never felt cluttered even while juggling a laptop and a meal service, and the seat-side water bottle holder is thoughtfully placed. I’d certainly be happy to spend several hours of a long-haul flight working away here.
One of the few downsides is the placement of the seat controls, as their position at tableside means the occasional elbow bump.
I’m a tall guy with large feet, and I found the legroom and footwell roomy and comfortable in any position. This seat avoids the pitfall of far too many “lie-flat” airline seats – namely, that they don’t actually, you know, lie flat – and in bed mode it was consistent and comfortable, allowing me room to grab an easy, relaxing half-hour nap that I’d struggle to get in on Air Canada, American or British Airways. The blanket provided was a bit thin, though I’d much rather ask for another than sweat my way through hours in a sauna-style cabin, and the cabin crew were happy to provide one.
In-Flight Service
The cabin crew were polite, friendly and attentive; service director Dorje Sherpa hit that magic mark of keeping a close eye on quality without micro-managing. We were offered fresh orange juice or sparkling water as a pre-departure drink, and on a morning departure I certainly wasn’t looking for anything stronger.
The breakfast menu offered a smart mix of Western and Indian options, and while I’d have loved to try the Chole Masala, a week of heavy spice led me towards the light continental breakfast instead.
Sadly, this was the low point of the flight, as the pastries were stale enough to suggest they couldn’t have been less than two days old, and the fruit had clearly passed its prime. I tried a bite of each in the hope that I’d just found a stale one-off, but the whole meal was consistently, simply too old to serve.
My point here isn’t that it’s awful or outrageous that stale pastry made it out the door, but when the goal is to build a premium product designed to compete against the best high-end service in the world, this kind of thing is a real stumbling block.
In-Flight Entertainment
As you'd expect from a national carrier serving domestic and long-haul routes, the IFE system provided a broad, diverse range of options in movies, TV shows and music, along with a handful of games and a dedicated section of kids' programming. Certainly enough there to keep a person occupied for a long-haul.
On a longer flight, I'd have loved to dig into some proper Bollywood content, but on this relatively short flight I mainly stuck to my favourite show on any flight, namely the tail-mounted camera!
All told, a solid showing from Air India in this department.
Final Thoughts
To me, this flight showed clearly that while Air India have already made huge progress, their road to rebuilding reputation will be a long one; it’s one thing to splash out the cash for newer, better-appointed aircraft, but it’s entirely another to completely re-make the soft product.
In the example of that breakfast, the reality is that Tata’s going to need to have a team of experienced senior chefs and service managers camp out at the in-flight caterers’ at each Air India hub for a year or more, enforcing quality-control standards that have not previously been part of this airline’s culture, and that’s going to be a slow, painful process for any organization.
…but the improvements they’ve already made are more than enough to make me start to consider Air India on a long-haul flight, where I never would have before.
I started off this review explaining that I chose to fly nearly 50% further on my Canada-India legs, just to avoid Air India in its existing 2-3-2 cabin layout. While I’d still avoid that like tha plague, if this is the product that’s offered on a 14-hour intercontinental trip, I’d take it in a heartbeat, and as far as I’m concerned, that represents a huge win from Air India in this early stage of the project.
Comments