With the Tata Group having recently regained control of Air India, a lot is happening with the world’s most populous country’s flag carrier. In early 2023, the airline ordered 470 aircraft in a landmark deal, in December of the same year it received its first A350, and now it appears to be close to expanding its network to include three new destinations in the US and two in Europe.
Continue reading to learn more.
Route Map Updates Reveal Air India’s Upcoming Destinations
Air India has not officially announced the details of its expansion in the United States or Europe yet. That said, Ishrion Aviation reported on X that Air India added seven new destinations to the route map on its website.
The destinations that the airline does not operate yet but are now appearing on the route map include Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur in Asia, Zurich and Rome in Europe, and Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle in the United States.
It’s worth noting that the map does not show codeshare destinations.
Air India’s Rumored Expansion in the United States
As mentioned above, Air India has not announced details of any of the rumored flights – or even confirmed that they will indeed be launched yet. However, a combination of the route map changes and schedule screenshot that first appear to have been posted on X by an Indian aviation enthusiast revealed some details of the upcoming routes.
While the frequency is not clear yet and the flight schedules might change by the time the flights are officially announced, at this point the screenshot indicates that the route to Dallas will operate as follows:
- AI199 / Delhi – Dallas / 2:00AM – 9:10AM
- AI198 / Dallas – Delhi / 12:10PM – 2:50PM+1
The schedule of the flight from Los Angeles to Delhi is also partially visible and appears to be:
- AI194 / Los Angeles – Delhi / 9:00AM – 2:00PM+1
Both of the routes will, according to the screenshot, be operated using “77B” aircraft. Given that both Dallas and Los Angeles are over 8,000 miles away from Delhi, chances are the code refers to ex-Delta 777-200LRs that the airline added to its fleet in 2022 and last year.
These are also used on some of Air India’s existing US routes and are equipped with a total of 296 seats including 28 in business class, 48 in premium economy class, and 220 in economy class. With the aircraft having their original interior, in business class passengers can enjoy the staggered “Delta One” seats with doors.
Unfortunately, no details about the Seattle route are in the screenshot, albeit it is believed the destination will be served out of Delhi too.
While Dallas and Seattle will be brand new destinations for Air India, the airline used to serve Los Angeles in the past.
Currently, Air India serves 5 destinations in the US, some of them from multiple Indian gateways:
- Chicago (daily from Delhi using the 777-300ER)
- Newark (4x week from Delhi mostly using the 777-300ER and 3x week using the 777-300ER)
- New York JFK (daily from Delhi using the 777-300ER and daily from Mumbai mostly using the 777-300ER)
- Washington Dulles (5x week from Delhi using the 787-8)
- San Francisco (11x week from Delhi, 4x week from Mumbai, and 3x week from Bangalore, all using the 777-200LR)
The Delhi – Newark route is also operated by United Airlines twice a day and the Delhi – New York JFK route is also operated by American Airlines daily.
Air India’s Rumored Expansion in Europe
Other than what I mentioned earlier in this article – i.e. that Zurich and Rome were added to Air India’s route map – little is known about the airline’s European expansion.
That said, both Rome and Zurich were served by Air India at one point or another in the past. The latter was served until 2020 when it was cut alongside a number of other European routes due to the pandemic.
Currently, it serves the following nine European destinations mostly from Delhi, some also from Mumbai, and London even from other Indian cities:
- Amsterdam from Delhi
- Birmingham from Amritsar and Delhi
- Copenhagen from Delhi
- Frankfurt from Delhi
- London Heathrow from Delhi and Mumbai
- London Gatwick from Ahmedabad, Amritsar, and Cochin
- Milan Malpensa from Delhi
- Paris CDG from Delhi
- Vienna from Delhi
Given that Delhi is by far the largest Indian market, the two new destinations will almost certainly be served out of Delhi too.
Both of the routes are already operated daily by other airlines. ITA Airways flies between Rome and Delhi while Swiss flies between Zurich and Delhi.
All of Air India’s European routes except for some of the flights between London Heathrow and both Delhi and Mumbai, which are operated by the 777, are operated by the 787-8. As such, almost certainly the upcoming Rome and Zurich flights will use the 787-8 too.
Summary
While not officially confirmed by the airline yet, it would appear that Air India is close to launching a number of new destinations including three in the US (Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle) and two in Europe (Zurich and Rome).
So far, only certain information about the Dallas and Los Angeles flights’ schedules was leaked. As such, we will have to wait for an official announcement to see when the routes will launch, how frequently they will operate, and with exactly what schedules.
