New Delhi: Air India will operate more flights on routes connecting the UK, Europe, Far East Asia and Africa starting from March 30, but will discontinue Mumbai-Melbourne and Kochi-London Gatwick services due to temporary operational fleet reduction amid retrofit programme of legacy Boeing 787 planes. The airline's first legacy Boeing 787 plane will be going for retrofit of new seats and entertainment systems in April and the aircraft is expected to join back the fleet in October this year, according to a release.
The retrofit of the legacy Boeing 777 aircraft has been delayed and it will start in early 2026. Loss-making Air India, which has embarked on an ambitious transformation plan, has more than 60 wide-body planes, including Boeing 777s and 787s. For the Northern Summer Schedule effective from March 30 to October 25, the airline will increase flights to the UK, Europe, Far East Asia and Africa.
There will be an addition of "3x weekly flights, increasing from 21x to 24x weekly flights" operated by A350-900 and upgraded B787-9 aircraft on the Delhi-London Heathrow route. The number of weekly flights will be increased from 3 to 4 on Amritsar-Birmingham and Amritsar-London Gatwick routes, while the weekly frequencies will be increased from 3 to 5 on the Ahmedabad-London Gatwick route.
In Europe, the carrier will operate fiveweekly services from Delhi to Zurich from current four weekly flights. There will be an increase from three to four weekly flights on the Delhi-Vienna route, as per the release. Also, the weekly flights on Delhi-Seoul route will be increased from 4 to 5. The airline said it will be switching from A321 to B787 Dreamliner on 7 weekly flights on Delhi-Hong Kong route.
The weekly services on the Delhi-Nairobi route will be increased to 4 from 3. "Arising from the retrofit programme and consequent temporary reduction in the operational fleet, the Airline will suspend its non-stop Mumbai-Melbourne service between 30 March and 13 September 2025, and the non-stop Kochi-London Gatwick route from 30 March 2025 until further notice," the release said.
After the first legacy Boeing 787 re-enters the fleet post retrofit in October, Air India said, "two-to-three B787s will be inducted per month until all 27 legacy aircraft have been upgraded". On the other hand, the retrofit of the legacy Boeing 777 fleet with new seats and entertainment systems will commence early 2026 whereas it was originally scheduled to commence in 2025.
Air India said the delay is due to production constraints at the selected seat supplier. "In the meantime, Air India is taking the opportunity to refresh as many other elements of the B777 interiors as feasible during 2025, ahead of the full retrofit programme," the release said. According to the airline, the modernisation of its narrow body aircraft is progressing well and will be completed in mid-2025.
