One Route At A Time, Air India Is Passing Tier-II Routes To Air India Express

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Over the last few months, Air India Express saw its fleet go up by five planes. While Boeing has not restarted deliveries, Air India Express is getting planes from parent Air India, which is sending out its all-economy planes - both old and new - to Air India Express. With the transfer of planes also comes the transfer of routes.

As Air India transitions to its new identity with Vistara's merger, the focus has been on consolidating operations in Delhi, Mumbai and selectively growing Bengaluru, while low-cost subsidiary Air India Express focuses on Chennai, Kolkata and other places with selective presence at metro's - which are largely to cater to Tier II cities.

The initial focus of Air India Express seemed to be on routes where IndiGo has a monopoly and taking on the market leader. Soon, this extended to taking up routes operated by Air India.

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The exact operating costs for both the airlines are not known, but Air India Express has traditionally had lower costs than Air India. The routes that are not primarily feeding the international bank of Air India and not contributing a lot to the feeder traffic seem to be the first ones which have seen the transfer. The routes are also such that they have a heavy low-cost carrier presence.

This has seen places like Agartala losing all flights of Air India to Air India Express. Additionally, Air India Express, with the merger of erstwhile AirAsia India, inherited some routes of AirAsia India. Similarly, while Port Blair continues to see service from Air India, some of the routes have moved to Air India Express. There can be divergent views. Can one full-service carrier attract a premium on a route where every other seat is on a low-cost carrier, or do you need a low-cost carrier for that market since every other seat available is with a low-cost carrier?

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The shift in flights from Air India to Air India Express is not restricted to domestic services. In fact, it started with international flights. Kuwait, for example, does not see Air India any more. Air India Express, which already had a presence in Kuwait, has taken over the Air India flights. The story is similar for some other cities like Muscat, Dammam and Kathmandu where routes beyond the key metros and sometimes even key metros which aren't feeding to the long-haul network were transferred to Air India Express.

The Air India group is now one big family. However, it also is a complex web when it comes to aircraft. Air India, post merger of Vistara, has legacy Air India planes, along with ex-Delta and ex-Etihad planes on the widebody side. The Vistara merger brings along three-class planes, mono-class planes and a new type (787-9 Dreamliner), and a new livery. On the Air India Express side, things are no different with the airline operating planes which are in old Air India Express livery, the A320 fleet which is the former AirAsia India fleet which is Red and White without branding, the new MAX 8 in the rebranded livery and now the Air India A320s which are in Air India livery. This is just the outside, the inside throws up more permutations and combinations.

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What these changes, at least on the domestic front, mean is that there are going to be fewer business class seats on the Metro-to-Tier II routes and Tier II routes in general, with the focus on metro-to-metro routes.

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