Air India adds capacity to East Asia Effective November 1, Air India goes double daily on Delhi Kuala Lumpur (currently served 10 weekly) From October 25, service goes daily on Delhi Seoul (ICN, currently served 6 weekly) AI 2384 DEL 1350 KUL 2200 AI 2386 DEL 2055 KUL 0500 (+1) AI 2385 KUL 0600 DEL 0915 AI 2387 KUL 2300 DEL 0220 Both daily flights on a320neo AI 312 DEL 0010 ICN 1030 AI 313 ICN 1205 DEL 1720 daily service on 2 class 788 @networkthoughts

Air India starts 3rd daily service on Delhi Colombo with the start of the winter season (October 25th). All 3 services are on A321 ceo aircraft. Mumbai Colombo maintained at 1 daily AI 277 DEL 0030 CMB 0410 AI 283 DEL 0715 CMB 1055 AI 281 DEL 1240 CMB 1605 AI 282 CMB 0510 DEL 0845 AI 284 CMB 1215 DEL 1550 AI 278 CMB 1705 DEL 2050 @networkthoughts

IndiGo is no longer offering on sale Bengaluru Salem and Hyderabad Salem from the start of the winter season (Oct 25th). In its place, Chennai Salem is offered 2 daily with ATR 72 aircraft 6E 7393 MAA 1100 SXV 1210 6E 7395 MAA 1540 SXV 1650 6E 7394 SXV 1230 MAA 1335 6E 7396 SXV 1710 MAA 1815 @networkthoughts

Air India starts 2 way easy connect with Ahmedabad just like they did with Amritsar. DEL AMD service starts 25th October The Easy connect flights are bookable on the air India app : DEL - AMD & DEL - ATQ are only bookable with international origin itineraries whereas AMD DEL & ATQ DEL are bookable for domestic pax as well AI 1118 DEL 1140 AMD 1320 AI 1120 DEL 1640 AMD 1820 AI 1117 AMD 0815 DEL 1000 AI 1121 AMD 2020 DEL 2205 @networkthoughts

IndiGo moves daily service to Jabalpur, Hindon Ghaziabad and Vishakapatnam from Navi Mumbai (NMI) to Mumbai (BOM) airport from the start of the winter schedule (Oct 25th). Hubli service has moved to BOM earlier this month. Jharsaguda, Kannur and Madurai service, all 3 of which had started from Navi Mumbai is not resuming. Madurai & Kannur will be served from BOM @networkthoughts

The Non UAE GCC network of Air India group in winter 26 Air India group will offer 228 weekly frequencies to the non UAE GCC countries this winter. In contrast to the UAE operation, this is more concentrated in the Malabar coast and Mumbai (BOM) offers the most frequency while Kozhikode (CCJ) has the widest breadth of destinations including Salalah (SLL) in Oman. Riyadh sees a reallocation of capacity with Air India offering a daily service from Delhi & Mumbai and IX offering connectivity from Lucknow, Kozhikode, Kannur, Bengaluru & Thiruvananthapuram. Bahrain & Dammam offer potential for increase given bilaterals (DMM is a free port) but the rest would be constrained by bilateral seat caps @networkthoughts

Air India group UAE operations in winter 26 Post the war related closures, AI & IX are restoring capacity to the UAE but from a more varied set of points including several new monopoly routes. The seasonal focus given the wedding season are markets in the north, west and central which are also new migration routes. All city pairs are on sale barring Amritsar Abu Dhabi & Mangalore Ras Al Khaimah - both of which are showing on Google flights but not yet available for purchase. Of course there is still 45+ days to the start of the new schedule and hence changes should be expected In all AI group will offer 325 weekly departures from the UAE to a staggering 22 Indian airports of which Delhi gets the most flights and seats. Interestingly of the 49 airport pairs on offer, 21 are monopoly routes with IX focusing on new albeit thin city pairs with no competition not just from Indian carriers but also Emirates, Etihad, Air Arabia etc @networkthoughts

It is indeed amusing that while we breathlessly report every Air India AOG with great diligence including the usual media circus of passengers stranded etc etc, when the same happens to overseas carriers and their planes going tech on Indian soil, the same tweeters and media is remarkably silent Case in point - G-ZBJI (came in as BA 119) went tech in BLR 5 days ago and it's return as BA 118 was cancelled. The plane is still enjoying BLRs salubrious weather as I post this but not a peep from our twitter warriors who breathlessly scan flightradar BA has another aircraft on ground in BOM (G-YMML) for the last 27 hours This is not a defence of AI maintenance - they have miles to go - just pointing fairly obvious and dare I say unusual interest

Air India group domestic capacity additions at BOM for winter 26 Like in Delhi, Air India has added capacity on select Metro - non metro pairs in the winter schedule effective October 25th ✈️BOM IXC goes up to 24x weekly (currently 18 weekly) ✈️BOM JAI 47 weekly ✈️BOM IDR 3 daily (up from 2 daily) ✈️BOM NAG 4 daily (up from 2 daily, IX will fly 1x daily) ✈️BOM GOI upto 8 daily ✈️BOM JSA 1 daily new introduction Further changes possible @networkthoughts

Air India adds capacity on Delhi - mini metro cities in winter schedule Air india group has started updating its winter domestic schedule with the following additions ✈️Delhi Srinagar 8x daily (last winter was 6x) ✈️Delhi Amritsar 8x daily (including 2 easy connect flights) ✈️Delhi Bhuj 2x daily (new morning departure) ✈️Delhi Raipur 4x daily (up from 3x daily last winter) ✈️Delhi Udaipur 4x daily (up from 3x daily last winter) ✈️Delhi Kochi 8x daily (up from 7x daily) ✈️Delhi Ahmedabad upto 11x daily (including 1x daily Air India Express service) ✈️Delhi Gaya 2x daily (announced previously) Further changes possible as we are still 45 days away from the start of the schedule @networkthoughts

Air India Express springs a surprise with 4 weekly Kochi Bangkok service in the winter schedule IX 476 COK 2215 BKK 0355 IX 475 BKK 0455 COK 0740 4 weekly service on Boeing 738 Flights start October 25 @networkthoughts

IndiGo has added Delhi Kishangarh (KQH) and Delhi Bareilly (BEK) to complement Noida service to both these airports. Service started 1st July onwards and continues through winter with ATR 72 operating DEL KQH 4 weekly complements DXN KQH 3 weekly operation DEL BEK 3 weekly complements DXN BEK 4 weekly operation Ahmedabad Kishangarh stays suspended @networkthoughts

IndiGo ATR ops at Navi Mumbai (NMI) in winter 26 IndiGo continues to base 3 atrs in Navi Mumbai (NMI) in the winter schedule starting October 25 but with a slightly different route profile vs summer ✈️Navi Mumbai - Ahmedabad will be served 3 daily with ATR services including a base departure ✈️Navi Mumbai - Rajkot Hirasar served twice daily including a base departure ✈️Navi Mumbai - Kolhapur served twice daily including a base departure ✈️Navi Mumbai - Bhavnagar served twice daily ✈️Navi Mumbai - Diu served once daily The Diu flight offers a one stop connection to Ahmedabad. Aircraft routed as NMI DIU AMD DIU NMI. In consequence, Surat Diu is no longer on sale. ✈️There is no ATR scheduled between Navi Mumbai and Goa Dabolim. Consequently Dabolim Coimbatore and Dabolim Nasik / IXU are no longer on sale @networkthoughts

In the winter schedule, Air India is increasing and premiumising it's seat capacity on Mumbai / Delhi Dubai starting October 25. All 24 weekly Mumbai (BOM) Dubai (DXB) flights will offer premium economy with 10x weekly 789, 2x weekly retrofit 3 class 788 & 10x weekly 320neo scheduled - all offering premium economy. From Delhi in contrast, service will be maintained at 4 daily but upguaged with more seats on offer with 1x daily on the 777-300 er, 13x weekly 2 class 788, 6x weekly 320 neo complemented by a Saturdays only op where the 320ceo fills in for the neo and the 3 class 788 for a 2 class 788, thereby ensuring 1x daily premium economy service. @networkthoughts

The next 2 long haul routes to see Air India's retrofit 3 class 788 aircraft will be daily Bengaluru to London Heathrow from January 1 & 5 weekly Mumbai to Tokyo Haneda from 1st February. With this, both London Heathrow & Tokyo Haneda will only be served by Air India's new product. As more aircraft return from retrofits, we should this network increasing @networkthoughts

Air India upguages Delhi to Manila and Mumbai to Mauritius from 321LR to 2 class 788 series aircraft in the winter schedule reflecting fairly quick maturity of both routes. Both started as 4/5 weekly, moved to daily service fairly recently and now upguaged. Delhi Manila will move to 788 from 25th October with slightly tweaked timings (1150 departure from DEL). Mumbai Mauritius will move to 788 from 1st January @networkthoughts