Air India Announces Expansion

Daniel-Fowkes-Profile
14 Feb 2025
3 min read
· Routes 
An Air India Airbus A350-900

Air India is preparing for the Northern summer schedule of 2025 by announcing several exciting plans to improve its business.

As part of the announcement, the carrier will increase its flights across various markets worldwide to meet capacity during some of the year’s busiest periods.

Air India is on a mission to turn its fortunes around, and announcements such as these to meet demand are crucial in capturing market share while fending off competition from other companies worldwide.

Despite struggles in supply chains and an inability to get planes delivered on time, Air India feels it is better poised this summer to grow its network than in the past, and the following announcements are part of that.

Air India Changes For Summer 2025

The United Kingdom is the first of the focal points for the Indian flag carrier, with Delhi to London Heathrow slated to see three further flights per week utilising the Airbus A350-900 and 787-9 Dreamliner.

Thanks to the additional flights, Air India will now have 24 flights per week, and the airline can add more in the future.

To meet increasing demand away from Heathrow, there will be increases in traffic to Birmingham and London Gatwick from other cities in India.

Air India also prioritises developing its network across Europe, using the popular city of Delhi as its origin port.

Delhi through to Zurich will increase from four flights a week to five. Meanwhile, Delhi to Vienna will also jump with one additional weekly flight from three to four.

Meanwhile, Far East Asia will also be subject to increases as Air India commits to growing service from Delhi to Seoul Incheon to five weekly flights, up from four.

Lastly, in this region, the company is beefing up capacity tenfold across its Delhi to Hong Kong service, with the A321 to be replaced by the widebody 787 Dreamliner on daily service.

An Air India Boeing 787 departs from London Heathrow
An Air India Boeing 787 departs from London Heathrow – Photo: Simon Butler.

Thanks to the airline adjusting the aircraft being deployed, hundreds of seats will be added between these two destinations during the year’s busiest period to meet leisure and business demand.

Air India’s final focal point for its recent summer expansion announcement involves Africa, where one additional weekly service will be offered between Delhi and Nairobi to make it four per week.

Full Schedule Adjustments

United Kingdom:

  • Delhi-London Heathrow: Addition of 3x weekly flights, increasing from 21x to 24x weekly flights operated by a combination of Air India’s flagship A350-900 and upgraded B787-9 aircraft.
  • Amritsar-Birmingham: Increasing from 3x to 4x weekly flights
  • Amritsar-London Gatwick: Increasing from 3x to 4x weekly flights
  • Ahmedabad-London Gatwick: Increasing from 3x to 5x weekly flights

Rest of Europe:

  • Delhi-Zurich: Increasing from 4x to 5x weekly flights
  • Delhi-Vienna: Increasing from 3x to 4x weekly flights

Far East Asia:

  • Delhi-Seoul (Incheon): Increasing from 4x to 5x weekly flights
  • Delhi-Hong Kong: Switching from A321 to B787 Dreamliner on 7x weekly flights  

Africa:

  • Delhi-Nairobi: Increasing from 3x to 4x weekly flights

Daniel-Fowkes-Profile

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daniel Fowkes

Daniel Fowkes is a Melbourne-based aviation analyst and journalist with over a decade of industry experience. As founder of Dj’s Aviation, he delivers trusted analysis on aircraft, airline strategy and global aviation trends for djsaviation.net

More About Author

Leave a Reply

  1. AI has totally neglected Bangkok (BKK) in those days when it was in govt control
    they were operating bom ccu bkk hkg tyo and also bom del bkk hkg tyo (HND)
    in 70s and 80s. bkk being an internationally famous tourist center dont know
    why they omitted/sidelined bkk

    they focus more on DEL which is an political officialdom, which is no good
    there are several problems in delhi, first being weather conditions. unpredictable
    weather conditions, too much fog, poor visibility. they should start more flights
    from bombay (mumbai) which is considerred as financial center of india
    and it is a world famous city and it is close to the west coast and very important gateway city for both outbound and inbound flights. now there two modern
    airports in bombay. i would strongly suggest this gateway city for middle east
    west africa europe and usa/canada. dont know why they are not targetting south american markets, it is a good market.
    for example, AI should operate bom madrid (MAD) to columbia, argentina and
    other spanish countries there will be lot of spanish people travelling for vacation business etc.
    like wise they should operate bom paris (CDG) or ORLY to montreal to cater
    to the french speaking people.

    lastly they should extend bombay to nairobi (NBO) flights to south african
    city JNB, PRE etc. also bombay to JNB non stop and then continue to NYC
    on this route, many american carriers are operating from NYC to JNB.
    south being gold producing country. can cater to the business and leisure
    travellers.

    i am ex AI official

Stay Informed

Get the latest aviation news, analysis and route updates delivered to your inbox.

We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time.

Enjoyed this story?

Make us your go-to for aviation news

Add us as a preferred source on Google and see our latest stories first in Top Stories.

Add Us On Your News Feed