Air India will revamp its international network by deploying retrofitted A320 neo aircraft, erstwhile Vistara's A321 neo and B787-9 planes on certain routes as well as optimise schedules for flights from Delhi to Paris and Frankfurt.
The Tata Group-owned airline, which is undergoing an ambitious five-year transformation plan, will deploy its retrofitted A320 neos for all flights between Delhi and Bangkok from January 16, 2025. These planes will have fully refreshed interiors across economy, premium economy, and business classes, according to a release on Monday.
Air India will also start a fourth daily flight between Delhi and Bangkok from January 1, 2025. Currently, it has three daily services on this route.
Further, the carrier will deploy erstwhile Vistara's A321 neos and B787-9s on certain routes.
Delhi-Frankfurt and Mumbai-Frankfurt services are now operated with B787-9s while twice-a-day Mumbai-Singapore flight will be operated with A321 neos from January 1, 2025.
The release said from January 1, 2025, B787-9 will be deployed for a daily flight between Delhi and Singapore, and A321 neos will be operated for two daily flights on the same route.
As part of Tata Group consolidating its airline business, Air India has merged Vistara with itself and AIX Connect has been integrated with Air India Express.
From February 1, 2025, Air India will also optimise the schedule of its flights on the Delhi-Frankfurt and Delhi-Paris routes.
"The new flight times now offer both daytime and nighttime departures on each route in both directions, providing greater flexibility to travellers. Air India has also retimed its daily flights on the Delhi-Sydney and Delhi-Melbourne routes to enable seamless two-way connectivity between Europe and Australia or points in Southeast Asia via Delhi.
"This means travellers from London, Paris, and Frankfurt can now easily take one-stop connections to Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, and to points like Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Ho Chi Minh City in Southeast Asia via Delhi," the airline said in the release.
On September 17, Air India announced the commencement of its over USD 400 million-refit programme for the phased revamp of 67 legacy aircraft -- 27 narrow body A320 neos and 40 wide-body Boeing planes.
The retrofitting of the first narrow-body A320 neo has started while that of wide body aircraft is expected to commence in early 2025.
Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson, on November 28, said the airline will see most of the air traffic growth coming from domestic and short-haul international operations in 2025.
Air India Group, including Air India Express, has a fleet of around 300 aircraft.
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