Air India on Wednesday announced the expansion of its global footprint as it launched new flights connecting Mumbai with New York, Paris and Frankfurt. The airline also resumed its non-stop flights connecting Delhi with Copenhagen, Milan and Vienna.
This expansion comes at a time when the airline continues to make progress in augmenting its fleet with newly-leased aircraft, and the return of existing aircraft to active service.
The new Mumbai-New York service will operate daily to John F Kennedy International Airport using B777-200LR aircraft and will commence February 14, 2023, the airline said in a statement.
It will complement Air India’s existing daily service from Delhi to New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport and four times a week flights to Newark Liberty airport, the statement added.
This takes Air India’s India-US frequency to 47 non-stop flights per week.
In the case of flights to Europe, Air India will add four weekly Delhi-Milan flights starting from February 1, 2023, and thrice-weekly flights on each of Delhi-Vienna and Delhi-Copenhagen commencing from February 18 and March 1, 2023 respectively.
From Mumbai, new flights are also planned to Paris (3 times a week) and Frankfurt (four times a week) starting next quarter. The schedule for these flights are yet to be decided.
All these flights will be operated by Air India’s B787-8 Dreamliner aircraft featuring 18 Business Class and 238 Economy Class seats, the airline said in its statement.
With the resumption of these flights, Air India will serve seven cities in Europe with 79 weekly non-stop flights - 48 to the United Kingdom and 31 to Continental Europe.
According to Campbell Wilson, CEO and MD of Air India, a key element of the five-year transformation plan was to strengthen India’s global network, connecting India’s major cities with even more destinations.
“The introduction of these new non-stop flights to New York, Milan, Vienna, Copenhagen, Paris and Frankfurt, is another step in that journey, which will accelerate as our aircraft fleet expands. We look forward to welcoming guests and sharing Air India’s warm Indian hospitality with them,” he said.