Air India Announces Phased Resumption of International Flights Following Safety Measures

Air India is gradually bringing back its international flight schedule after a “Safety Pause” was put in place after the unfortunate crash of flight AI171 on June 12. This pause led to the temporary suspension or reduction of numerous routes to allow for comprehensive safety checks on Boeing 787 aircraft and to accommodate adjustments to flight paths caused by regional airspace restrictions. Starting August 1, partial services will be restored, with full operational capacity expected by October 1. Several routes will experience service restorations or increased frequencies. Key developments include the complete restoration of 24 weekly flights on the Delhi-London (Heathrow) route, effective July 16. Additionally, the Delhi-Zurich route will increase from 4 to 5 flights per week, starting August 1. The Delhi-Tokyo (Haneda) and Delhi-Seoul (Incheon) routes will see full weekly frequencies reinstated by August and September, respectively. Furthermore, the Delhi-Amsterdam route will return to its previous schedule of 7 flights per week from August 1. A new route connecting Ahmedabad and London (Heathrow) will commence with three weekly flights, replacing the existing five-times-weekly service to Gatwick. Delhi-Nairobi flights will operate three times weekly until August 31, before a suspension from September 1 to September 30. Despite the partial restoration, more than 15 routes will continue to operate with reduced frequencies until the end of September. These include flights between Bengaluru-London (Heathrow), Delhi-Paris, Delhi-Milan, Delhi-Copenhagen, Delhi-Vienna, and Amritsar-Birmingham. North American destinations such as Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, and New York (JFK and Newark) will also maintain reduced frequencies. The flights between Delhi-Melbourne and Delhi-Sydney continue at 5x weekly. Four international routes remain suspended until September 30: Amritsar-London (Gatwick), Goa (Mopa)-London (Gatwick), Bengaluru-Singapore and Pune-Singapore. Air India is reaching out to impacted passengers, offering rebooking or full refunds.