Air India has suspended its services between Delhi and Washington, D.C. effective September 1, 2025, due to operational reasons to ensure the overall reliability and integrity of Air India’s network.
Fleet Retrofit and Airspace Restrictions Impact Operations
The suspension is mainly due to the planned shortage of Air India’s fleet as the airline started retrofitting 26 of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft last month. This massive retrofit programme to enhance customer experience will keep multiple aircraft out of service for a prolonged period till at least end of 2026. And with the airspace over Pakistan still closed, it impacts the long haul operations and makes the flight routings longer and more complex.
Customers booked on Air India to or from Washington, D.C. beyond September 1, 2025 will be contacted and offered alternative travel arrangements including rebooking on other flights or full refunds as per their preference.
Alternate Routes and North America Services
Air India customers will have the option of one stop flights to Washington, D.C. via four U.S. gateways – New York (JFK), Newark (EWR), Chicago and San Francisco – with Air India’s interline partners Alaska Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines and travel on a single itinerary with their baggage checked through to the final destination.
Air India will continue to operate non-stop flights to six destinations in North America including Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.
In other news, the BJP on Monday asked Congress leader K C Venugopal to face consequences if his claim that an Air India aircraft carrying MPs, including him, came close to a “tragedy” due to another plane on Chennai runway is found to be untrue. On Sunday, Air India said the flight AI2455 was diverted to Chennai due to a suspected technical issue and not because of another aircraft on the runway.
On Monday, Aviation watchdog DGCA said Air India’s flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi was diverted to Chennai on Sunday evening due to suspected malfunctioning of the weather radar of the aircraft which landed safely.