Air India will start non-stop services between Delhi and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in September. In addition, Tata Group-promoted Air India is set to add new destinations in the US after a gap of nearly 10 years. According to sources, the 15-hour-long ultra-long-haul flight services will commence from India to Los Angeles, California, and Dallas, Texas. Presently, Air India is the only Indian airline that operates flights to the US. The airline presently serves five destinations in Washington, New York-JFK, Chicago, Newark, and US- San Francisco.
The last US destination launched by the airline in 2015 was San Francisco. Air India operates more than 120 flights, within a week both ways, between India and the US. According to various sources, plans are being prepared to expand services to LA and Dallas. There is a huge Indian diaspora in the vicinity of these two megacities and no direct flight connections from there to India.
According to sources, there is a big demand for direct flight connections to India from the diaspora market, and before the end of 2024, the flight services are likely to start, and they plan to deploy a fleet of Boeing 777s to these destinations. The airline is hoping to arrange two-class configured Airbus A320neo aircraft to operate the daily flights on the new routes.
Furthermore, next month Air India will start non-stop services between Bengaluru and London Gatwick (LGW). The airline will use its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on the route, including 18 business class and 238 economy seats. Finally, the airline wants to organize its A350s into service for flights to continental North America. For now, the A350-900 will replace the presently deployed Boeing 777-300ER and Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on the Delhi-London Heathrow route as of September 1.
Currently, the aircraft is operated on the Delhi-Dubai-Delhi and Mumbai-Dubai-Mumbai routes. The airline currently has six A350s in its fleet. Air India initially operated the aircraft on domestic routes for crew familiarization, 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 strong 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 within the next couple of years.
