Air India’s brand new A350 aircraft to make long-haul debut with Delhi-London Heathrow flights from September | Business News
Air India will be deploying its latest wide-body Airbus A350-900 aircraft on the Delhi-London Heathrow route from September 1, marking the long-haul debut of the A350 aircraft—the first new aircraft type to be introduced by an Indian airline in over a decade. Air India started receiving the long-range A350 aircraft—which are part of its mammoth order of 470 Airbus and Boeing planes—in December. Of the 40 A350s ordered by the airline in 2023, six have already joined its fleet.
The A350 aircraft, with which the Tata group carrier introduced its new brand identity and upgraded product this year, has so far been used to operate domestic flights and the short international hop from Delhi to Dubai. These operations were mainly seen as a precursor to the aircraft’s deployment on long-haul routes. The airline has so far not commented on the other long-haul routes where the A350s would be deployed. Given the range of the aircraft, they can be used to operate flights to most global markets where Air India operates.
According to Airbus, in a standard three-class configuration, the A350-900 can carry 300-350 passengers and has a flight range of over 15,000 km.
“The A350-900 will replace the currently deployed Boeing 777-300ER and Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on 14 of 17 weekly flights. As a result, an additional 336 seats will be available on the Delhi-London Heathrow route each week. With the deployment of the A350-900 to London Heathrow in September, Air India will have upgraded 90% of all its flights to London Heathrow,” Air India said in a release, adding that it has already deployed the recently-inducted leased Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with elevated cabin interiors on the Mumbai-London Heathrow route.
Air India’s A350 flights will feature new soft products and enhancements unveiled earlier this year. These enhancements include new chinaware, new tableware and glassware, new bedding, and updated amenity kits for Business and Premium Economy guests. Air India’s A350 aircraft also come with a premium economy cabin class, in addition to the carrier’s regulation business and economy classes.
Air India’s A350-900 aircraft come in a three-class cabin configuration with a total of 316 seats—28 in business class, 24 in premium economy, and 264 in economy class.
Many of Air India’s existing fleet of aircraft comprises older planes that were inducted when it was under government control. A bulk of these aircraft were in a rundown state due to the financial stress it was under before the Tata group took over in January 2022.
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The airline’s massive order of 470 planes—250 with Airbus and 220 with Boeing—is key not just to the Air India group’s capacity and network expansion plans, but also to its ambition of offering a world-class product to flyers. Air India’s Airbus order consists of a total of 40 A350 planes and 210 planes of the A320neo family of narrow-body aircraft. The six A350s delivered to Air India so far were originally meant for Russian flag carrier Aeroflot, but were offered to the Indian carrier due to the West’s sanctions on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
Apart from the taking deliveries of brand new aircraft, Air India is also undertaking a massive fleet refit programme to upgrade the cabin on its legacy fleet in a bid to enhance the product and compete with global carriers.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
