Air India to expand flight services to new US destinations

Tata Group-promoted Air India is set to add new destinations in the US after a gap of nearly 10 years, sources told FE. According to sources, the 15-hour-long ultra-long-haul flight services are expected to commence from India to Los Angeles, California and Dallas, Texas.

At present, Air India is the only Indian airline that operates flights to the US. The airline currently serves five destinations in the US–San Francisco, Chicago, New York-JFK, Newark and Washington.

The last US destination launched by the airline was San Francisco in 2015. In total, Air India operates over 120 flights per week, both ways, between India and the US.

“Plans are being prepared to expand our services to LA and Dallas. There is a large Indian diaspora in the vicinity of these two megacities and no direct flight connections from there to India,” sources said.

When contacted, the airline did not comment on the story.

According to sources, there is a high demand for direct flight connections to India from the diaspora market. “The flight services are expected to start before the end of 2024. We plan to deploy our fleet of Boeing 777s to these destinations.”

In addition, Air India will start non-stop services between Delhi and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on September 15.

The airline plans to deploy two-class configured Airbus A320neo aircraft to operate the daily flight on the new routes.

Furthermore, Air India will start non-stop services between Bengaluru and London Gatwick (LGW) next month. The airline will use its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on the route, featuring 18 business class and 238 economy seats.

Eventually, the airline plans to deploy its A350s into service for flights to continental North America. For now, the A350-900 will replace the currently deployed Boeing 777-300ER and Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on the Delhi-London Heathrow route as of September 1.

Presently, the aircraft is operated on the Delhi-Dubai-Delhi and Mumbai-Dubai-Mumbai routes. The airline now has six A350s in its fleet.

Air India initially operated the aircraft on domestic routes for crew familiarisation, followed by the Dubai flight launch. The airline received the first of its 20 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, registered VT-JRA, on December 23.

Air India has firm orders for 250 new aircraft with Airbus. With six A350-900s in its fleet, the airline will take deliveries of another 14 A350-900s and 20 A350-1000s over the next few years.