For now, Air India’s A350-900 aircraft are the only exciting aircraft in their fleet. As of writing this post, all six have already been inducted. Although, when I travelled for this trip, it was just the first jet in service. I usually love first flights, but I was away on a personal engagement in January when the first aircraft was supposed to be pressed into commercial service. So, I had to pass on the initial dates. However, when AI put the flights out for sale, they stated that flights on the A350 would be available only for February 2024. So, I booked some tickets to try out the jet across the various classes, including the Business, Economy Class and the Air India Premium Economy Class.

Since then, Air India has also put the remaining A350 aircraft in service. The A350 currently operates daily flights between Delhi / Mumbai and Dubai. Also, flights operate domestically between Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi. You can check the entire flight schedule on the A350 here.

After flying from Delhi to Bengaluru on the A350 in the Business Class cabin, I took a Bengaluru—Mumbai—Chennai flight in the A350 economy class the following day. I took a short break in Chennai but eventually stayed at the airport, cancelling my plans to get into the city for lunch on this hot day.  The arrival area was barren, and some dust-laden seats in the corner became my office for a few hours. They did not mind me sitting there killing time while I waited to transit to my next flight.

Eventually, at about 3:30 PM, I left that fly-infested waiting area and headed to the check-in area on a different floor. This was exactly three hours before the flight’s scheduled departure, and they would finally let me in.

At the Chennai Airport, the only airlines that use Terminal 4 are all the Tata group airlines (including Air India, Air India Express and Vistara) and Alliance Air (at least as per the board)

There was no DigiYatra in Chennai when I last visited, so we did it the old-fashioned way, standing in a queue and showing tickets and an ID to an officer.

Inside, there was no queue to speak of. The whole terminal is a ghost town for now.

Air India’s check-in counters were right at one corner of this massive terminal. I have to admit, I was a bit confused seeing a First Class counter, only to quickly remember that there is indeed a daily Air India flight between Delhi and Chennai, and return, operated with a Boeing 777-300ER in the evening, which is equipped with a First Class.

It took me five times longer to get processed at the check-in counter than I had to find the counter and get here. Reason: Air India ground staff in Chennai make a complete note of why they assigned you access to the lounge when they granted you a lounge access pass. It takes time. They should perhaps make a rubber stamp for half the details if they need this localised intervention.

Security took a while as well, and from there, I headed over to the TFS Lounge for domestic customers. The lounge was right across the gate for my flight, which was good because I could keep an eye on my gate from the level above the gate.

I spent about an hour at the TFS Lounge, which had improved from the last time I was there. But that is a story for another time.  An hour later, I could see VT-JRA come back to Chennai. From the time I’d deboarded, the aircraft flew from Chennai to Bengaluru and then came back. It would now head up to Hyderabad, where I already had a (tight) connection booked to Delhi.

Once the flight arrived, I headed to the gate while it offloaded the incoming passengers. Boarding started roughly 55 minutes before departure, and the priority lane was strictly enforced. However, priority customers can walk in at any time.

However, all that good start was lost as we waited about 20 minutes in the aerobridge to board (while the plane was still being cleaned up).

Air India AI587
Chennai (MAA) – Hyderabad (HYD)
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Departure: 06:20 PM
Duration: 1 Hour 10 Minutes 
Arrival: 07:30 PM
Aircraft Type: Airbus A350-900 
Seat: 9A (Premium Economy)
Meal Service: Snack

The business class cabin takes the first section. The premium economy cabin sits behind door L2 (the second door on the aircraft), where the economy and premium economy passengers would usually enter from. The first thing you’d see as you enter is the bar, a social area created for Aeroflot by installing a monument right behind the business class section.

Air India’s A350-900 Interiors

Air India has 24 seats in the Premium Economy section, which is organised as a 2-4-2 layout with only three rows. It sits right behind the divider/galley.

Here is the Premium Economy cabin. It was hard to get a full shot with people moving around the cabin, but here is what I got.

You will note that Air India could not modify the blue divider developed in the earlier airline’s colours.

And here, just a month into service, the A350 already had its first big gash.

Unfortunately, this was not present the previous day and was fresh. From the looks of it, a kid peeled off the paper from the divider while playing around on one of the earlier sectors. Oops.

Air India chose the Collins Aerospace MIQ Premium Economy class seat (Aeroflot selected it, and AI followed suit). This is a popular choice worldwide for a business-class fit on narrowbody planes and premium economy on widebody aircraft. The seat pitch is a generous 38 inches, and the width is 18.5 inches, a full inch wider than economy class.

I was in 9A, in the middle row, by a window seat. Only one person was in the PE Cabin, and he was seated right ahead of me.

A nice headrest accompanied the seat, now covered in grey faux leather.

Air India’s Airbus A350-900 Premium Economy Class In-flight product

I settled into my seat and noticed the 13.3-inch in-flight screen. Working in-flight entertainment is an excellent sign for Air India. The monitor has touch controls for browsing and making choices on the IFE. Under the monitor, there was also in-seat USB power charging, both USB A/C.

On the side, in my armrest, there was a small handheld control for the IFE.

In the seat dividers, there was also in-seat universal power charging.

You could almost miss the reading lamp as a trim on the seat, but it would be handy on long flights when your cabin is mostly dark.

The legroom was extremely generous.

A firm divider between both the seats means no one flows into their neighbour’s personal space, and there is no war for the armrest either. It also makes space to keep your drinks when you don’t want to have your tray table out.

Adjacent to the IFE controls are seat controls, which just help you recline up to 8 inches or bring out the calf-rest. In this small sector, it did not matter, but on the 10-15 hour long flights, it would help give your body much-needed support to not have your feet left hanging.

There is also some storage for your personal effects built into the seat, in the divider itself.

Air India’s A350-900 Premium Economy Class In-flight service

It was a quick turnaround from Chennai, and after boarding, I waited for the doors to close.

However, service was proactive. A few minutes after boarding, the cabin crew came around with cold towels.

The crew also brought a glass of water and placed it with a coaster (something missing even in the business class the day before).

Menu cards were distributed for the meal service, which would just be a quick snack.

For those interested, here are the options on offer.

Right about time, we were ready to go. The doors closed at 6:20 p.m., and we pushed back shortly after.

We took off right in time, and as we climbed out of MAA, it was a nice view out of the window at dusk.

After takeoff, the crew jumped into action, and when the flight levelled, they brought out the meals. I went with the Thai Chicken Sandwich, served with a diet cola, as I’d requested.

The flight was, honestly, uneventful. The seat was very comfortable, and I plan to try for a longer flight someday. But I did have an interesting chat with the cabin crew member who came after the entire service routine to say hello. He realised he’d seen me on the flight the day before as well between Delhi and Bengaluru. The usual script about thanking you for being a Gold member was played out today, but there was no point in it, given that the service was already done.

We had the mood lighting in the cabin for most of the flight time.

Soon enough, it was time to prepare for landing.

We landed in Hyderabad and were assigned a remote gate. That meant the opportunity to deboard and go through Hyderabad Airport on a bus.

I was thankful that I’d engaged a travel agent to book my MAA-HYD-DEL itinerary together because this was now a tight connection. Luckily, once at the arrival gate, Air India’s ground staff called for the names of all the 15 or so people who were going to have the same connection, and we had someone escort us through transit security and to the gate.

Bottomline

This was a good flight experience with Air India, but it was too short. Domestic flights on wide-body aircraft are rare, so I try to get in when I can, but this was even more special since this product will eventually fly abroad and is the new flagship of Air India. The premium economy class cabin looks very comfortable. It is valuable for those who don’t have the budget to fly in business class but those who need more comfort than the economy cabin for 8-9 hour long flights. As I keep stating, though, all the airline has to do is bring their crew service standards to an even level.

What do you think of these A350 aircraft being added to Air India’s fleet and of the experience they offer?

---

Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay. Every contribution helps cover the cost of the content generated for your benefit.

(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. For international transactions, use Paypal to process the transaction.)

We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.

Pros

+ Brand new aircraft
+ Comfortable, well-padded seats
+ Hard dividers between two seats
+ Working IFE
+ Meal Choices

Cons

None, really

Rating