New Delhi : Air India announced, on March 25, that all staff, including top management, would travel in economy from April 1, in an effort to free up seats for paying customers, as the airline works on improving its image following recent criticisms.

Staff would be upgraded to Premium Economy and Business Class seats on a flight only if these remained unsold 50 minutes prior to departure, said reports, 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," informed reports citing a spokesperson.

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.

As per recent reports, Air India was exploring a multi-billion dollar order for dozens of widebody jets from Boeing and Airbus.