SpeedFreak

Saw the 787 from the inside at del airport as it was parked on the adjacent bay and was getting ready for blr. It looks nice from inside and unfortunately the photos don't do justice to economy class. The colour suits it nice and it looks nice. Business class is just 3 rows between the first 2 doors and the seats looks different, and the colour does not suit the business class as much as it suits economy. Though they have really huge screens for every seat . Looked comparable to 777 first in size but I could be wrong.

SpeedFreak

And they asked for start up with 244 pax. Looks like 787 load is finally picking up

A2A

they cancelled plans to go to DXB and put up double daily DEL-BLR n DEL-CCU.

PVDtoDEL

Advanced booking to DXB have been poor, and BLR loads have been good. Schedule change makes sense..

joejoe666

Will they fly to USA with this?

PVDtoDEL

No plans in the near future. S12 sked is the earliest the 787 could be scheduled to North America on a regular basis, and that would probably be on the currently suspended YYZ route.

ashishp

Cooked up some office work to enable a trip to MAA just to try out the 787. DEL-MAA on the morning flight, then took a shatabdi to BLR and then returned by evening BLR-DEL next day.

I found the experience strictly average to be honest. The economy class is too cramped and the seats are definitely narrower than the economy seats in the A320. This is especially noticeable when flight is full, which was the case on the BLR-DEL segment. I am not sure these will be very comfortable on the 15 hour routes that some are talking about.

On both the flights, Cockpit crew was ICPA: old friends there! the cabin crew however were most certainly pre merger Air India with salwar kameez uniforms typical of PMAI regional.

On the positive side, loads seem to have really pickjed up. The BLR flight was completely booked with just a handful of seats in economy left empty. Even business was completely full: I am told they are selling only 15 out of 18 on each flight for now: and it was sold out! Upgrades were ruled out. This could be however because J pax from the 4 other daily flights are changing to this flight. Otheriwse i dont see how they are getting these loads in Business class!

A2A

source?

Whizkid

Any idea when the 787 flights for Winter Schedule will be loaded?

Also these flights are not available as a connection option in AI website - Any clue?

onlysuites

Just 18 J seats on a long haul aircraft sounds less? Anyone know AI's reasoning behind this?

PVDtoDEL

I've been watching Amadeus carefully. Not perfectly accurate, but it generally does give a very good idea of how many seats have been sold...

BLR has been consistently selling out, while DXB was wide open even 2 days before.
Sked Changes are loaded by AI usually on Friday evenings/Saturday mornings. I wouldn't be surprised to see W12 loaded this weekend or next weekend.
It's a midhaul aircraft replacing the A310, not a longhaul aircraft . And anyway, if AI can't sell more than 18J, what's the point of having it?

jasepl

Well, clearly a lot of folks were expecting too much from the 787 in terms of passenger comfort, even though it never seemed like it was going to dramatically change the passenger experience. It's meant to be more an operators' aircraft rather than a passengers'.

(I still prefer my miles the Airbus design of no middle seat in J and no 9-, or, worse, 10-abreast in Y; I had hoped Boeing would have made the 787 just narrow enough, but, alas.)

Of course, a lot depends on how an airline chooses to kit out the plane. And here we can trust AI to make the already underwhelming even more underwhelming, before they make it downright disgusting.


By the way do the AI interiors look as awful in real life as they do in the pictures (as if bodily fluids were excreted from all three orifices all over the cabin)?

jasepl

One minute it is "The government is bent on destroying Air India by making them fly to places for political purposes".

The next minute it is "It will be fantastic when AI fly to places for political purposes."

Love it. ^^^

ashishp

+1. i loved the old A300's of the IC fleet for that reason. Sadly now long gone.

Actually no. When i saw the photographs taken by our staff photographer at Hyderabad, i was appalled but I guess it was just poor photography skills. In real life it looks quite pleasant and cozyish. But they should do something about those awful uniforms the cabin crew wear. They should go back to the old blue/green combination sarees. The black/gold mess they have now is just bad!

Unfortunately (not for the airline though!) both the flights I was on, the Y class was jampacked so it looked kind of cramped. J class looked very nice and cozy though. I wouldnt mind J even for a longer 15 hour flight. The Y class of the 787 though would be torture for anything beyuond a 4 hour flight.


PS: I just took a A321 flight in economy to confirm a nagging suspicion and I was right. The A321 seat is DEFINITELY wider, or atleast feels like that, than the economy seat on the 787.

So comfort wise, the A320 seat on AI economy wins hands down and the 787 loses out here. But the IFE was awesome! It was different from what I had seen on the 777's as well. Huge selection of movies and programmes. Watched 2 different Marathi movies on both segments. Very nice!

Wish they could get the 787 IFE system on the A320 fleet: but that is probably asking for too much

SpeedFreak

The reason Boeing won the contract from air India and not airbus was air India asking for I think 9 abreast seating and airbus offering only 8. Initially they were askin for 8 and the contract almost went to airbus, but just to favour Boeing requirement was changed to 9 and airbus couldn't offer it. Pax comfort was not even a consideration.