AIR INDIA said on Tuesday (15) it would partially restore its international flight schedule that was scaled back following the crash involving its flight last month that killed 260 people.
As part of the restoration, Air India will start a thrice-weekly service between Ahmedabad and London Heathrow from August 1 to September 30, replacing the currently operating five-times-a-week flights between Ahmedabad and London Gatwick.
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London from the Indian city of Ahmedabad began to lose thrust and crashed shortly after takeoff on June 12. All but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground were killed.
Air India reduced some of its international flights following the crash as part of a "safety pause" that the carrier said allowed it to perform additional precautionary checks on its Boeing 787 aircraft.
The partial service resumption will see some flights being restored from August 1, with full restoration planned from October 1, 2025, Air India said.
The airline has reinstated two weekly flights on the Delhi-London (Heathrow) route that were previously cancelled, with all 24 weekly flights on this route now operating from Wednesday (16) onwards.
The Bengaluru-London (Heathrow) service remains reduced from seven flights per week to six flights per week and will be further reduced to four flights per week from August 1. The Amritsar-Birmingham route continues to operate at a reduced frequency of twice weekly instead of three times weekly until August 31, after which normal three-times-weekly service will resume from September 1. The Delhi-Birmingham route remains reduced from three flights per week to two flights per week, a statement said.
Air India has also temporarily suspended the Amritsar-London (Gatwick) route, which normally operates three times weekly, and the Goa (Mopa)-London (Gatwick) route, also a three-times-weekly service. Both suspensions will continue until September 30.
As part of the partial resumption, it also reduced flights to some destinations in Europe and North America. These include reductions in the frequency of Delhi-to-Paris flights to seven times a week from 12, effective August 1.
Flights on the Delhi-Milan route have been reduced to three times a week from four earlier.
The frequency of flights from Mumbai and Delhi to New York JFK has been cut to six times a week from seven earlier, the airline said.
(with inputs from Reuters)
Lakshmi Mittal