Air India has decided to change its international network schedule for destinations in Southeast Asia, Europe and Australia in an apparent bid to capture more international connecting traffic to and from these regions via its main hubs of Delhi and Mumbai. Tata Group Airlines on Monday announced several product upgrades and optimized flight schedules for these markets, with most of the changes taking effect in January and February.
The changes will see Air India deploy its best aircraft – including the erstwhile Vistara – to key gateways to Southeast Asia and Europe. This will complement Air India’s new flagship Airbus A350 and its newly leased Boeing 777 aircraft already deployed on various US and UK routes with upgraded cabin interiors. Vistara, which was also a Tata Group airline and highly rated as a full-service carrier, merged with Air India in November.
in October, The Indian Express After the merger with Vistara, Air India announced that it would gradually deploy its own new and retrofitted aircraft alongside the earlier Vistara on certain priority routes both within India and abroad. The idea is to set customer expectations right and offer a superior and consistent product on key routes regardless of the flight booked.
A few months ago, Air India began a $400-million retrofit program to spruce up and upgrade its legacy narrow-body fleet, much of which had been in a rundown state since the airline’s state-owned days. The narrow-body retrofit program is likely to be completed by mid-2025, with a similar refit program for the carrier’s legacy wide-body fleet expected to begin in the coming year.
“The updates also lead to optimized flight schedules for key international routes to enable seamless intercontinental travel between North America or Europe and Australia or Southeast Asia via Air India’s hubs in Delhi and Mumbai, providing more flexibility to passengers,” Air India said. Monday.
The government as well as the major Indian airlines—Air India and IndiGo—want to develop major Indian airports as international hubs with significant international-to-domestic connecting traffic. Recent network expansion plans announced by both major airlines seem, at least in part, to be in line with that objective.
Delhi-Bangkok: Spruce-up production, additional daily flights
The international product upgrade and optimized schedule will include the introduction of Air India’s retrofitted narrow-body A320 aircraft on all Delhi-Bangkok flights and increased daily frequency. These retrofitted aircraft will have completely fresh interiors in a three-class cabin configuration – economy, premium economy, and business.
“Air India will also start operating a fourth daily Delhi-Bangkok service from 01 January 2025, increasing the frequency on this route from thrice daily. The new service departs from Bangkok at regular intervals throughout the day and offers more options to business and leisure travelers,” the Tata Group airline said, adding that the increased frequency will help connect Bangkok to more destinations in North America and Europe. Air India’s hub in Delhi.
Product upgrade on Singapore flights from Delhi, Mumbai
The airline has decided to upgrade its flight and product in Singapore by using ex-Vistara aircraft, which offer a superior cabin experience compared to Air India’s legacy fleet. From January 1, Air India will operate a daily Delhi-Singapore flight using Vistara’s existing wide-body Boeing 787-9 and two daily flights using Vistara’s A321 Neo aircraft. The airline will also operate two daily Mumbai-Singapore flights using Vistara’s A321neo jets.
The airline has already transferred its legacy Boeing 787 production to the earlier Vistara Boeing 787 aircraft on its Delhi-Frankfurt and Mumbai-Frankfurt flights.
“This optimized fleet deployment (for Delhi-Singapore and Mumbai-Singapore flights) will offer the latest generation cabin interiors, including fully flat beds in Business Class and continued availability of Premium Economy on these routes. Air India is one of the few airlines in Asia which offers fully flat beds in business class on its single-aisle A321neo aircraft.These A321neo and B787-9 aircraft HD screens in the cabins as well as Wi-Fi internet connectivity on board provide an immersive inflight entertainment experience,” the airline said.
With these upgrades, the airline is confident of providing convenient connections to passengers to and from Singapore to various destinations in the USA, Canada and Europe via Delhi or Mumbai.
Optimized program for major Europe, Australia routes
From February 1, Air India will optimize the schedule of Delhi-Frankfurt and Delhi-Paris flights by offering both afternoon and night flights compared to the current day departures, in an effort to provide more flexibility to passengers.
The airline has decided to reschedule its daily flights on the Delhi-Sydney and Delhi-Melbourne routes to enable “seamless two-way connectivity between points in Europe and Australia or Southeast Asia via Delhi”.
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