Air India to deploy A350 services on ultra-long-haul routes

Mumbai: Private carrier Air India on Friday commenced Airbus A350 services on ultra-long-haul routes with the deployment of the aircraft on the Delhi-New York route. This comes at a time when the Tata-Group run carrier has temporarily cancelled some 60 flights to various US destinations between November 15 and December 31 on account of the non-availability of some of its widebody planes due to maintenance and supply chain issues.

Following the introduction of the A350-900 aircraft on the Delhi-New York flight, Air India said it will start a five times a-week A350 service from Delhi to Newark's Liberty International Airport from January 2 next year. Air India currently has six Airbus A350-900 aircraft in its fleet. Generally, ultra-long-haul flights are those having a duration of 16 hours or more. Air India operates such flights to North America. The loss-making Air India had inducted the first A350-900 in the fleet in December last year.

Following this, the airline initially deployed the plane on domestic routes and later on for operating medium-haul long international flights including to London from Delhi. "Guest feedback on the aircraft and new customer experience has been exceptionally positive since it was launched on the Delhi-London Heathrow route in September, so we are excited to now bring it to New York," said Campbell Wilson, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Air India. Air India is also looking forward to commencing the full interior refit of existing aircraft in 2025 he added.