Air India staff to fly Economy from April 1 to prioritise paying passengers

Air India, taken over by Tata Group in 2022, merged with Vistara—its joint venture with Singapore Airlines—last year

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Air India said on Tuesday that all staff, including top management, would travel in economy from April 1 to free up seats for paying customers, as the airline works on improving its image following criticism over flight delays.

Staff would be upgraded to premium economy and business class seats on a flight only if these remained unsold 50 minutes prior to departure, The Times of India said in a report, confirmed by the airline.

“With this, we want to ensure that our premium seats for which we are seeing huge demand - are available for booking to our customers first, demonstrating a culture of customer-centricity in the new Air India,” a spokesperson said.

India is among the world’s fastest-growing major aviation markets, and its domestic air passenger traffic has been growing at an annual rate of 10-12% over the past 10 years, according to the government.

The formerly state-owned Air India was taken over by the Tata Group in 2022, and merged with Vistara - a joint venture between the Tatas and Singapore Airlines - last year.

Billions of dollars have already been spent on an ambitious turnaround for the carrier, which involved ordering new jets, changing its logo, and upgrading interiors for over half its fleet, since the 2022 takeover.

Reuters reported last week that Air India was exploring a multi-billion dollar order for dozens of widebody jets from Boeing and Airbus.