The Routes Currently Served By Air India’s Airbus A350s

Air India

(AI), the Indian flag carrier, recently announced that it had installed Wi-Fi on the

Airbus A350

that it operates

Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport

(DEL) and

London Heathrow Airport

(LHR). Earlier this year, the carrier

announced that it would use the A350s for its flights between DEL and New York

.

Photo: Air India

A350s are a significant part of the carrier’s expansion into the international scene. In this article, we’ll take a look at where Air India operates its Airbus A350s.

How Has Air India’s Livery Evolved Over The Years?

A brief glimpse

Data from “Cirium, an aviation analytics company,” reveals that the fewest number of operations that AI has on its A350s for the month of September is eight. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the highest number is just shy of 100.

All in all, Air India carries out 661 operations using its Airbus A350s. All the A350s offer exactly 316 seats per departure.

Photo: Air India

In addition to operating the routes within India and to airports like LHR, the carrier also flies to the Middle East. This has helped the carrier achieve an impressive 281,968,696 Available Seat Miles (ASMs) on its A350s. Let’s get into the details of the carrier’s offering of over 200,000 seats on its A350s for the month of September.

The Domestic routes

India has some of the most iconic airports in the world, such as

Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport

,

Mumbai Airport

, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, among others. Air India conducts operations to and from these airports for their domestic routes using the A350s.

Flights to and from Hyderabad

Let’s look at the number behind the operations of Air India’s Airbus A350s from the airport with

the second-longest runway in India

: the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (HYD) in Hyderabad.

Photo: Air India

Three of the four lowest operations of Air India using the A350s involve flights to or from HYD. Incidentally, these are also some of the smallest routes offered on AI’s A350s.

Between MAA and BLR – the smallest route

The distance between Chennai International Airport (MAA) and Kempegowda International Airport (BLR) is merely 167 miles – the smallest on the list. With 44 operations from BLR to MAA and 43 from MAA to BLR, the A350s of Air India offer just over 2.2 million ASMs on either of these routes.

This shortest route operated by Air India’s A350s is twenty-five times smaller than the longest.

The route with the highest number of operations is domestic, too

Air India’s A350s have 98 operations in September 2024 from

Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport

(DEL) to Kempegowda International Airport (BLR). An identical number of operations take place from BLR to DEL.

Air India offers almost sixty-two thousand seats on its operations between these two airports. This is the second-highest ASMs in AI’s operations with its A350s.

DEL – LHR : the longest route of Air India’s Airbus A350

Air India’s flights between Delhi and London using its A350s offer close to eighty million ASMs. These aircraft complete their 4,190-mile journey from DEL to LHR twice a day. The same is true for operations from LHR to DEL. All in all, 37,920 seats are offered on AI’s operations between DEL and LHR.

Here’s a look at a few competitors of AI on this route, based on data provided by flightconnections.com.

Air Canada is also set to start operating this route from October on its Boeing 787-9s.

Photo: Air India

According to The Economic Times, Air India’s operations of its A350s between DEL and LHR has some impressive services, such as:

• New, comfortable seats in economy class, a revamped premium economy, and full-flat beds in business class.
• In-flight entertainment system with over 3,000 hours of content. In addition, kids can access approximately 100 hours of curated audio and video content.

Air India Will Fly Its New Airbus A350s Between Delhi & London Heathrow

The newspaper further reported that the crew will don new uniforms designed by Manish Malhotra, among other updates such as:

“Business and Premium Economy passengers will receive updated amenity kits designed by Ferragamo and TUMI. Additionally, Air India introduces its new soft product, Vista Verve, which includes new chinaware, tableware, glassware, and bedding. The refreshed Premium Economy amenity kit, created by TUMI, includes skincare essentials from the Swedish label Verso, as well as an eye mask, socks, and hand lotion. These kits are packaged in recyclable Kraft paper.”

From Delhi to Dubai

The flight from DEL to

Dubai International Airport

(DXB) is 1,359 miles long. Over 12 million ASMs are available in the 30 operations that AI’s A350s have from DEL to DXB. These numbers are identical for the operations from DXB to DEL.

Photo: Air India

Some of the other carriers offering direct flights on the DEL-DXB route include (based on the data from Flightroutes.com):