Air India to drop first class, offer only business class to SFO

India’s state-owned carrier Air India has announced it will completely remove the first class cabin being currently offered on its Delhi-San Francisco route. The airline had launched first class service on its three-class Boeing 777-200LR aircraft in December 2015. The premium cabin is however being removed because of depleting revenues due to ‘low occupancy’.

The Boeing 777-200LR aircraft currently offers eight seats in first class cabin. Apart from this, the aircraft also offers 35 business class seats and 195 seats in economy class cabin. Air India has now decided to reconfigure the aircraft. Media reports said that the airline is taking the step of removing first class cabin in view of increased demand for travel in business class and economy class.

Air India presently operates a fleet of over 125 aircrafts, including three Boeing 777-200LR aircrafts. The airline has decided to reconfigure all the three aircrafts in phases. The three Boeing 777-200LR aircrafts are being operated on Delhi-San Francisco route. The cost of reconfiguring each B777-200LR aircraft is expected to be up to $ 2 million.

According to the airline, there will be no need for deploying extra aircrafts for operating flights between San Francisco and Delhi during the reconfiguration period. The flights on the route will be operated on a rotation basis.

A spokesperson of Air India said there has been about 25 percent occupancy ever since the first class cabin was launched. The occupancy in business class has however increased by 30 to 35 percent of late. Seeing the spurt in demand for travel in business class the airline has therefore decided to reconfigure the Boeing 777-200LR aircraft in two classes and remove first class seats altogether. The reconfiguration exercise will also see the total number of seats in economy class cabin being increased to 298 after the revamp is finally complete.

The launch of Delhi-San Francisco route is the first direct flight services between the U.S. west coast and India. The duration of the flight is around 17 hours. Air India is also providing daily nonstop flights to Newark Liberty, New York JFK and Chicago from Delhi.