Air India CEO promised full restoration of flights from October 1. That is nowhere in sight

Air India, which has cut many of its flights following the deadly crash at Ahmedabad in June, is unlikely to get to its full schedule starting this winter. This comes within weeks of Campbell Wilson, its CEO, talking about full restoration of its international schedule from October 01, 2025 while sending out an email to its frequent flier program members. Data shared by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article shows that the airline is making further changes to its schedule which sees cancellations and frequency reductions across its core widebody international network.

While some routes have been transferred to Air India Express, the group is completely vacating routes like Pune – Singapore, Delhi – Nairobi, Goa (Mopa) – London Gatwick and Delhi – Washington. Air India had increased frequencies across various routes in the Summer schedule, only to scale back the operations post AI171 crash on June 12, at Ahmedabad immediately after take-off for London Gatwick.

The airline had strengthened its international network starting March end with increased frequencies to Birmingham, London, Zurich, Vienna and Nairobi. However, the airspace closure over Pakistan meant it had to reroute its flights with some having to take a technical stop. A short conflict in the Middle East further complicated the situation and the crash and subsequent checks meant additional ground time requirements for the airline. The airline is making further changes to its network in winter which indicates that it is not restoring its flights as hoped for by the CEO.

Europe

Air India is withdrawing a frequency each (Numbers in brackets denote weekly frequency in winter) to Milan (six weekly), Zurich (four weekly) and Copenhagen (four weekly) from Delhi. While last time around the airline pulled out of Kochi – London Gatwick route, this season shift the airline is pulling the plug on Goa Mopa – London Gatwick route which is currently suspended as part of its schedule cuts. To London Gatwick, the airline will operate only from Ahmedabad and Amritsar with thrice a week flights, shrinking its earlier presence. Air India will also reduce frequency to Birmingham from Amritsar from four to three flights a week.

North America

Air India has already pulled out of Delhi – Washington and will see Delhi – Chicago trimmed to four times a week from Daily flights which it operated in May as well as last Winter. The airline is also cutting one frequency each on Delhi – Newark (from five weekly to four weekly), Delhi – New York (From daily to six weekly) and Mumbai – New York (from Daily to six weekly).

China, refurbishment and more

The airline has seen its much delayed refit program take shape with one dreamliner aircraft in the United States and another to follow soon. The airspace restrictions over Pakistan continue as they are with no end in sight. With all indications of Chinese routes opening up, the airline would have budgeted aircraft for routes to China, the intermediate refurbishment program for the 777s and additional block times for existing flights to cater to airspace restrictions.

However, this may not be the only reason. The impact of the crash over its international market is not yet known publicly. If it has consistently seen a drop in passengers or has a need to drop fares to attract passengers, it makes better sense to adjust frequency to market demand. This essentially helps regroup before expanding again.

Jolt to VIA campaign

Towards the end of February, Air India made changes to its then merged network making two banks of flights to Frankfurt and Paris and changing timings of flights to Australia to cater to connecting traffic with focus on VIA, with focus on international to international transfer passengers at Delhi.

The airline will induct one Dreamliner and one A350 each, possibly in the current financial year. The geopolitical conditions along with the crash seems to have pulled Air India away from its growth chasing mindset towards having more robust and stable operations, something which it could have looked at in the past. Its full fleet refurbishment will now be complete only on the other side of its ambitious Vihaan.AI program, which is a five year turnaround plan with the airline. The three stages of the plan are Taxi, Take-Off and Climb with the airline calling out two stages being complete by April 2024. The first two phases of this transformation, ‘Taxi’ and ‘Take-off’, were focused on fixing the basics and building foundations for growth. Air India is now in the ‘Climb’ phase, which focuses on achieving excellence in operations and customer experience, as per the airline.