Mumbai, Oct 28 (PTI) Air India's low-cost arm, Air India Express, is expecting to induct 20 to 24 aircraft in the fleet in the next calendar year, a top airline executive said on Tuesday.

Air India and Air India Express together currently have a fleet of 282 aircraft, of which as many as 110 planes, comprising Airbus 320/ 321, Boeing 737 and 737 MAX, are with the low-cost arm.

"We are looking at about 20 to 24 aircraft in the next calendar year," Air India Managing Director Aloke Singh said here at an event to showcase the first retrofitted aircraft of Air India Express.

He, however, said that these deliveries would depend on the supply chain and how the production line at the Boeing manufacturing facility progresses.

Singh said that all the 50 white-tail Boeing 737-8 are expected to be retrofitted into a single-economy-class configuration by mid next year.

Air India Express had taken the delivery of the first B737-Max in 2023 when it also launched its refreshed brand identity with a new livery. These B 737-8 are part of the then 470 aircraft order placed by the Air India Group with both Boeing Co and Airbus.

The 470 aircraft order-- included 50 white-tail B 737 Max.

White-tail aircraft are new aircraft manufactured initially for a specific airline but are eventually sold to another airline in a situation of either the original airline declining to take deliveries or for some other reason.

He said that Air India Express is expecting the entire order of 190 B737 Max of the 470 planes, to be delivered by 2030.

Earlier, the airline unveiled the new cabin interiors and refreshed onboard ambience of its latest Boeing 737-8 at Mumbai International Airport here. Onboard the new aircraft, Air India Express said would be equipped with ergonomically designed synthetic leather seats with superior padding, thicker armrests, and improved legroom, in-seat USB charging ports at every seat so that a passenger remains connected and brand-new carpets and advanced Boeing Sky Interior lighting.

Besides, it would also offer Hot 'Gourmair' meals with ovens installed to keep the food hot.

"The fleet is fungible between the two entities - Air India and Air India Express. Depending on how we see the market evolving, how we see appetite for a particular business model, we will switch the capacity," he stated.

Singh also said that the narrow-body (Airbus 320 family, Boeing 737 and Boeing 737 MAX) capacity that the two entities operate on the domestic and short-haul international routes is divided almost equally between the two airlines.

He said that Air India Express is now looking to strengthen its presence in the domestic market, with this segment expecting to grow faster than the international network.

"About two years ago, as much as 60 per cent of the network was short-haul international network, and the remaining 40 per cent domestic. Today, it is about 50-50 per cent. We have been growing international short-haul as well. But we have been growing faster in the domestic Indian market," Singh said.

Over the course of the next couple of years, he said, Air India Express will be continuing on this trajectory. " "So, the domestic network will be growing faster than the short-haul international network. On the domestic network, the strategy broadly is depth before spread," he said.

Stating that the airline wants to have a meaningful presence on city-pairs with the aim to have at least about one third of the market, he said and added that "our focus continues to be metro to tier 2, tier 3 cities." He said that if one looks at the airline's network structure, the bulk of the network, almost 80 per cent of its domestic capacity goes from metros to non-metros, tier 2, tier 3 cities or the largest segment of the domestic market, which is the fastest growing segment as well.

"So, Air India focuses on the metro-to metro-routes and the routes which have a greater composition of business traffic and, of course, long haul international (routes)," Singh said.

Air India Express is focusing on the leisure markets, the VFR (Visiting Friends and Relatives), the best reference and revenues market, the SME market, the value conscious market, which is primarily metro-to non-metro primarily as well as the short haul regional international," he said.

Air India group currently commands around 30 per cent market share with Air India Express having around 11-12 per cent within that, he said, adding that, however, market share is not a target for the airline as such since it is a function of how much capacity is built by each player.

He said that given the nature of the domestic India market and the short haul international market, what we see is that the market is skewed more towards the value, more towards the LCC model.

"And therefore, it is reasonable to guess that bulk of the narrow body capacity will be operated under the low-cost model by Air India Express," he added. PTI IAS MR